Author(s): Markus Aufleger; Frank Steinbacher; Ramona Baran; Michaela Woerndl
Linked Author(s): Markus Aufleger
Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: Exploiting the novel and unique technology of Airborne HydroMapping for the comprehensive monitoring of Alpine rivers, lakes, and reservoirs is the main topic of a research project funded by the Austrian Research Foundation (FFG). This survey technology was successfully developed within the scope of a research cooperation between the University of Innsbruck and RIEGL (Lower Austria). Airborne HydroMapping is based on an airborne-operated and water-penetrating laser system. For the first time, this stand-alone system allows to conduct a simultaneous survey of the bathymetry of shallow aquatic systems and the adjacent floodplain topography at an unrivalled level of consistency and detail. This approach provides the important opportunity to substantially improve our understanding of the complexity and variability of hydraulic, morphologic and ecologic processes within rivers, lakes and reservoirs. It has the potential to fundamentally reform the rationales of economic and political decisions associated with water-management facilities, mitigation measures (e. g., in terms of flood protection), or monitoring capabilities required by the EU Water Framework Directive. The availability of the new technology asks for a comprehensive exploitation and evaluation of the survey procedure and the captured data, that will be carried out within the frame of the new research project ALPINE AIRBORNE HYDROMAPPING –Research to Practice (AAHM – R2P). The close cooperation between scientific and economic project partners covering sensor technology, methods for transforming data into information, and water-resource applications relevant for society at both, scientific and economic level, allows feed-back and feed-forward from application to survey system and vice versa.
Year: 2013