Hydrographic
9 Surveying,
Topographic
Surveying and Global
Positioning System
HYDROGRAPHIC SURVEYING
- Is the process of employed in gathering information concerning any body of water
and its adjacent land areas. Such type of surveys are usually made of the purpose of:
1. Providing data for the preparation of hydrographic maps and nautical charts
needed in navigation, harbor improvement, yardage and dredging projects.
2. Flood control, Water supply, hydro-electric power development, pipeline and
underground cable crossing, and irrigation.
3. Obtaining information needed for the design of bridges, dams, seawalls,
culverts, sewage disposal plants, lighthouses, docks, and other structures.
4. Determining the volume of impounded water, direction and velocity of
currents, drainage areas, and the capacity of a containing basin.
5. Gathering data needed for the establishment of tidal datums.
6. Locating navigational hazards such as submerged obstructions, sunken vessels,
sand bars, rocks, shoals, and coral reefs.
CE 131: Fundamentals of Surveying | Measurement of Vertical Distances | Engr. Charles A. Mateo, MSCE
1. The measurement of depth of water at various points is termed as sounding.
2. Depth of Sounding is referred to the water level at the time it is made.
3. Thereafter, the soundings are reduced to datum water level, to account for tidal
waters which undergo continual change of elevation, with the help of gauges.
4. A number of benchmarks (B.M.) are established at frequent intervals along the
shorelines, and gauges are set on them.
Tides
1. These are periodical variations in the water surface of oceans due to the attraction
of celestial bodies.
2. The principal tide producing agents are the sun and moon, of which moon is more
powerful tide producer.
3. Tides produced by unbalanced attracting forces between the moon and earth are
known as lunar tide.
4. Tides produced by unbalanced attracting forces between the sun and earth are
known as solar tides.
5. Since the sun and moon act simultaneously, the lunar and solar tides are
superimposed.
Tide gauges
1. These gauges may be non-registering or self registering types.
2. Non registering types requires an observer to record the water level.
a) Staff gauge.
b) Float gauge
c) Weight gauge
a) Staff gauges
1. Simplest type of gauge.
2. It consists of a graduated board, 150 to 250 mm wide and 100 mm thick,
fixed in vertical position.
CE 131: Fundamentals of Surveying | Measurement of Vertical Distances | Engr. Charles A. Mateo, MSCE
b) Float gauges
1. The float gauge is designed to overcome the difficulty in reading a staff
gauge when the intensity of tides is high and the variations of water level is
more.
2. It consists of a float to which a graduated vertical staff is attached.
CE 131: Fundamentals of Surveying | Measurement of Vertical Distances | Engr. Charles A. Mateo, MSCE
c) Weight gauges
1. The weight gauge consists a weight attached to brass chain or wire.
2. The chain passes over a pulley, and is laid horizontal along the side of a
graduated scale.
3. The weight is lowered to touch the water surface, and the reading is taken
on the graduated scale against an index attached to the chain.
CE 131: Fundamentals of Surveying | Measurement of Vertical Distances | Engr. Charles A. Mateo, MSCE
Self registering gauges
1. Self registering tide gauges automatically record the variation of water
level with time.
Mean Sea Level
1. Mean sea level is defined as the main level of the sea obtained by taking
the mean of all the heights of tides measured at regular interval of one
hour over a stated period (about 19 years) covering entire number of
complete tides.
2. Mean sea level shows appreciable variations from day to day, from
month to month and even from year to year.
Sounding
1. The process of determining depths below the water surface is called
sounding.
2. Sounding is analogous to leveling on land.
3. The reduced level of any point on the bottom of a water body is
obtained by subtracting the sounding from the mean sea level.
Purpose for sounding
1. Preparation of accurate charts for navigation.
2. Determination of the quantities of the material to be filled.
3. Obtaining information for design of breakwaters, sea wells etc.
4. The sounding points should be selected keeping in mind that all the
important irregularities are recorded.
5. The soundings are thus made along a series of straight lines at right
angles to the shoreline.
6. The spacing between the sounding lines and between the sounding
points depends upon the nature of submarine surface as well as on the
object of the survey.
7. Usually Spacing between sounding lines is kept 30 m and spacing
between sounding points is kept 7.5m to 15 m.
CE 131: Fundamentals of Surveying | Measurement of Vertical Distances | Engr. Charles A. Mateo, MSCE
Range line
A range or a range line is the line along which soundings are made.
These are usually fixed perpendicular to the shoreline and are parallel to each
other.
CE 131: Fundamentals of Surveying | Measurement of Vertical Distances | Engr. Charles A. Mateo, MSCE
Equipment for sounding
The essential equipment and instrument employed for taking the sounding
may be grouped as :
1. Shore signals and buoys.
2. Sounding equipment.
3. Angle measuring instruments.
1. Shore Signal and buoys
Shore signal are required to mark range lines.
Each range line is marked with two signals, at some distance apart,
along it on each shore.
The signals are usually wooden tripods with a white and colored flag
on the top.
A buoy is a float made of light wood or hollow air tight vessel properly
weighted at the bottom, and is anchored in a vertical position by
means of wires.
In deep waters, the range lines are marked by a signal at shore and
buoys in water.
2. Sounding Equipment
1. Sounding boat :
The sounding operation is carried out from a flat bottom boat of low
draft.
The boats are generally provided with opening, called wells through
which soundings are taken.
The motor should have adequate control both for low speed and for
rough waters
CE 131: Fundamentals of Surveying | Measurement of Vertical Distances | Engr. Charles A. Mateo, MSCE
2. Sounding Pole or rod
These are made of strong well seasoned timber usually 5 to 10 cm in
diameter and 5 to 8 m in length.
The sounding rods consists of two or three lengths screwed together so
that unnecessary length may be removed when not required in shallow
water.
A lead shoe of sufficient weight is fitted at the bottom to keep the rod
vertical in flowing water, and to avoid sinking in mud or sand.
The graduations on the rod are marked from bottom upwards.
Thus, the reading corresponding to the water surface, is directly the
depth of water.
3. Lead line
It consists of a graduated line or chain to which a lead is attached.
Under ordinary tension, when wet, the line should not change its length.
Every one feet of the lead is marked with a cloth.
The mass of the lead is generally between 5 to 10 kg, depending upon the
strength of current and depth of water.
A correction is required to be applied to the measured length to get the
true depth when using lead line.
Due to drag, the measured length will be greater than the true depth.
Sounding boat / Sounding pole/ lead line
4. Weddell’s Sounding machine
CE 131: Fundamentals of Surveying | Measurement of Vertical Distances | Engr. Charles A. Mateo, MSCE
When there is a lot of sounding work, some form of sounding machine attached to sounding
line is used.
Weddell’s hand driven machine consists of a cast iron casing carrying on a spindle
gun metal barrel.
A lead weight (8kg) carried at the end of a flexible wire cord attached to the barrel,
can be lowered at a desirable rate, the speed of the drum being controlled by a
brake.
The spindle is connected through gears to two reading dials.
The outer dial records the depth in meters and the inner records in centimeters.
A standard machine designed to measure maximum depths up to 30m to 40m.
Weddell’s Sounding machine.
5. Echo sounding machine / Fathometer
Where the depth of water is too much, an echo sounding machine known as
fathometer is used.
It measures the depth below the boat on which it is installed.
It works on the property echo property.
It consists of a transmitter and a receiving oscillator, recorder unit and a power unit.
The sound waves emitted at the surface of the water are recorded back after these
return from the underwater surface.
Since the velocity of sound waves in water is known, the distance travelled by sound
waves can be calculated.
D=½Vt
This method is very accurate and can be used in strong winds.
It is more sensitive than other methods, and produces continuous record in the form
of curves when boat is in motion
Advantages of Fathometer :
1. It is more accurate than the lead line.
2. It can be used in strong currents or streams.
3. It is more sensitive than the lead line method.
CE 131: Fundamentals of Surveying | Measurement of Vertical Distances | Engr. Charles A. Mateo, MSCE
4. It can be used on days, or in any weather, when the ordinary lead line method would
be impossible.
5. It is much more rapid in use than the ordinary method
4. Angle measuring Equipment
Most common angle measuring instruments are :
1. Theodolite
2. Prismatic compass
3. Sextant.
The theodolite and prismatic compass are not suitable for angle measurements
from sounding boats due to instability of rowing boats. Sextant has been found to be
most suitable for measuring angle in any plane.
Navigators and surveyors measure angles from sounding boat by sextant only.
When observations are made from the shore, theodolite and prismatic compass are
used.
The sextant used in hydrographic surveying is known as the sounding sextant.
It slightly differs in construction from the astronomical sextant.
CE 131: Fundamentals of Surveying | Measurement of Vertical Distances | Engr. Charles A. Mateo, MSCE
Points to be kept in mind while using sextant :
1) Angle measured with a sextant is an oblique unless three points sighted
lie in horizontal plane.
2) The size of the angles and length of sights affect the precision of angle
measurement.
3) A sextant is not recommended for angle measurements when the
angles are less than 15 degrees and the sights are less than 300 m.
4) Vertical angles can also be measured with a sextant in a similar manner
to that of horizontal angles.
CE 131: Fundamentals of Surveying | Measurement of Vertical Distances | Engr. Charles A. Mateo, MSCE
CE 131: Fundamentals of Surveying | Measurement of Vertical Distances | Engr. Charles A. Mateo, MSCE
