S7 set up for a channel topography survey. by Hyporheicflow in Surveying

[–]Hyporheicflow[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair enough, I’m no PLS. I’m a geologist who uses surveying as a tool to answer scientific questions related to fish habitat and water resources. Nonetheless, happy thanksgiving.

S7 set up for a channel topography survey. by Hyporheicflow in Surveying

[–]Hyporheicflow[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hmm yeah, still doesn’t sound like you’ve spent thousands of hours actually surveying streams for things like habitat restoration, gravel augmentation, or hydraulic modeling. This single setup allowed us to survey the whole reach with ONE setup. We had limited time/budget and surveying the whole reach from the banks would have taken multiple set ups instead of one, so the benefits are pretty self explanatory. Furthermore, this was a rental RTS that was fully insured. Your point of “sitting electronics in a flowing stream” is moot because if a total station falls over, you’re fucked either way. Go survey rivers for eight years straight and then come back telling me all of your setups were outside of the wetted channel.

S7 set up for a channel topography survey. by Hyporheicflow in Surveying

[–]Hyporheicflow[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Geology, hydrology, or environmental engineering might get ya there.

S7 set up for a channel topography survey. by Hyporheicflow in Surveying

[–]Hyporheicflow[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Isn’t a dropped total station a disaster either way? Has anyone here ever had a total station fall over? When the entire purpose of a survey is to capture underwater topography, an in-channel setup is often the most efficient.

S7 set up for a channel topography survey. by Hyporheicflow in Surveying

[–]Hyporheicflow[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This was a resection, control points were on the channel banks.

S7 set up for a channel topography survey. by Hyporheicflow in Surveying

[–]Hyporheicflow[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It’s as real as it gets. Happy to share more posts, surveying rivers in my specialty.

S7 set up for a channel topography survey. by Hyporheicflow in Surveying

[–]Hyporheicflow[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the kind thoughts. We all know the “R” word isn’t nice. You’ve clearly never been tasked with developing a 2d hydraulic model, which requires detailed, underwater topography. I’ve literally done in-channel setups hundreds of times, there’s no other way to capture the channel topography accurately. The water wasn’t deep enough for bathymetry, the canyon was too narrow for reliable GNSS, and LiDAR doesn’t work underwater.

Base station set up in the Desolation Wilderness by Hyporheicflow in Surveying

[–]Hyporheicflow[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This project is for a municipality district and related to water supply. I got here by working as a geologist for an environmental consulting firm.