Hydrosurvey Data Archive for Federal Navigation Projects
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) performs hydrographic surveys (hydrosurveys) for federal navigation projects around the U.S. Federal navigation projects include an estimated 25,000 miles of channels and form a key part of U.S. maritime infrastructure in both coastal and riverine areas. Hydrosurveys provide information about channel bathymetry which is critical for safe navigation by mariners, as well as a historical record of how channels change over time due to sediment deposition (shoaling) and sediment removal (dredging). The USACE eHydro program provides a standardized archive of available hydrosurveys from across the country all in one place. The USACE eHydro website includes the ability to search on a map to see where hydrosurveys are available, and when the most recent survey was conducted – an important detail since not all channels are surveyed with the same frequency. Users can download the latest PDF Plotsheet for a channel, or download the underlying data for use in other geospatial software programs.
USACE Hydrographic Surveys page on Data.Gov: https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/usace-hydrographic-surveys
USACE Hydrographic Surveys Main Page with Interactive Map: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/4b8f2ba307684cf597617bf1b6d2f85d
USACE Hydrographic Surveys Data Download Page: https://geospatial-usace.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets?group\_ids=df70bc1371e3468b902e657cd26fc91c
By Marin Kress, Research Scientist, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
