Development and Application of SEAHAWK Korean Domestic Airborne Bathymetric LIDAR System 

Jaebin Lee ^1,*, HyeJim Kim², Hyunsoo Hur³ Gwangjae Wie³

¹ Department of Civil Engineering, Coast & River Spatial Informatics Lab, Mokpo National University, Jeonnam, Korea

² Coast & River Spatial Informatics Lab, Mokpo National University, Jeonnam, Korea

³ Geostory Inc., Korea

^*Corresponding author: lee2009@mokpo.ac.kr

Abstract:

Over the recent decades, airborne bathymetric LiDAR (ABL) has proven to be an efficient and cost-effective technology supporting a variety of applications, including sea charting, shoreline mapping, regional sediment management, and benthic habitat mapping. It is particularly advantageous for measuring shallow water areas inaccessible to a shipborne sonar system owing to navigational safety. In Korea, extensive efforts have been devoted by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries to the development of a new ABL system, named Seahawk.  Since its first successful flight on July 1st, 2018, Seahawk has been widely used to obtain topographic and bathymetric measurements of coastal zones in South Korea. Thus, Seahawk ABL data is becoming progressively popular among many coastal scientists and engineers for efficient coastal zone mapping and management. This paper describes the system development process and ongoing pilot projects. In particular, this study validates Seahawk ABL data for shoreline mapping, coastal erosion monitoring and tidal flat mapping by using the multi-temporal data acquired on the coast of Korea, and analyzes the results to reveal the quantitative and qualitative effectiveness of this technique.

Keywords: Airborne Bathymetric LiDAR,  Seahawk, Shoreline mapping, Coastal Erosion Monitoring, Tidal Flat Mapping

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by Korea Institute of Marine Science & Technology Promotion (KIMST) funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (No. 20200623) and Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (No. 2021R1I1A3059263).