During the COVID-19 Executive Order lockdown, AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS’ Scientists and Technicians were selected as critical infrastructure workers to provide essential services in support of energy, water, public works, and agricultural projects.

As part of an environmental engineering and restoration project, AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS was sub-contracted to conduct hydrographic surveying of 6.5 miles of the Kalamazoo River, Michigan. River conditions on this reach of the river included rocky riffles, swift currents, standing waves, and shallow backwaters.

Based upon the challenging river conditions, AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS utilized three separate survey crews, operating three survey vessels, and utilizing two different types of hydrographic survey methods in order to accomplish the project objectives.

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS crews performed the hydrographic survey in accordance with the USACE hydrographic survey manual protocols. One crew operated a single-beam echosounder system from one of the survey vessels, while the other crews utilized USACE “sounding-pole” methods from the other survey vessels.

All crews utilized RTK-GNSS survey equipment (with horizontal and vertical accuracies of 0.05’) to assure accurate positioning data were obtained during the hydrographic survey.

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS’ Scientists compiled the hydrographic data and developed a digital terrain model for the Project Engineers to utilize towards the restoration of this reach of the river.

AFFILIATED RESEARCHERS has a great deal of environmental mapping experience, under a wide range of conditions, and has provided its hydrographic and geophysical surveying services throughout the Great Lakes region as well as other regions in the United States.