GAIA Marine delivered a focused shallow-water survey for a jack-up barge mooring assessment in the Pilbara, combining USV-based multibeam bathymetry and drop-camera benthic habitat survey to support nearshore port infrastructure planning.
The project required high-resolution bathymetric and benthic habitat data within a discrete shallow-water port area. GAIA used a USV fitted with a multibeam echosounder to acquire bathymetry safely and efficiently in constrained waters, supported by a small vessel for deployment and recovery. The USV-based approach was particularly suited to the shallow-water requirement, allowing precise survey coverage close to infrastructure and across areas where vessel draft, manoeuvrability and safety controls are material constraints.
The bathymetric survey achieved full coverage with no data gaps, strong beam performance, low noise and consistent line-to-line agreement. Tide observations, GNSS corrections, POS MV motion data, patch testing and sound-velocity profiling were used to support a defensible engineering-grade bathymetric dataset.
GAIA also completed a benthic habitat assessment using drop-camera imagery across 32 locations. This project is a concise example of GAIA’s ability to combine USV hydrography, environmental imagery, vertical control, in-house processing and GIS-ready outputs for port infrastructure decision-making.