Hydrographic Survey

Prepared by
Jay Bhavsar
Asst. Prof. CSPIT
 Introduction
Hydrographic survey includes all types of
hydrological observations which are necessary
for the design of hydraulic, or marine
structures.
For example
Dam, Barrages, weirs and cross drainage works.
Design of ports, docks harbours, light houses
 Purpose of Hydrographic survey
• To prepare nautical charts for navigation.
• To determine the quantities of subaqueous
excavation.
• To measure areas subjected to scouring or silting
in harbors and docks.
• To undertake underwater investigation to collect
data for designing port and harbour facilities.
• To plan engineering projects such as bridges, dam
and reservoirs.
 Purpose of Hydrographic survey
• To locate rocks and other objects such as
buoys, lights, etc to aid safe navigation
• To control floods, and to plan water supply
and storage from rivers
• To determine the shorelines of water bodies.
• To collect data about tides and determine the
mean sea level
• To collect discharge data by measuring flows
in rivers, etc.
 Operation Involved in Hydrographic
Survey
• Hydrographic surveying are carried out for one
or more of the following activities.

1. Measurement of tides for sea coast work

• E.g. construction of sea defense works,
harbors etc, for the establishment of leveling
datam and for reducing sounding.
 Operation Involved in Hydrographic
Survey
2. Determination of bed depth, by soundings
– For navigation
– Location of rocks, sand bars, navigation light.
– For location of under water works volumes of
under water excavation etc.
– In connection with irrigation and land drainage
schemes.
 Operation Involved in Hydrographic
Survey
3. Determination of direction of current in
connection with
– The location of sewer any pipe or channel that
carry waste water out falls.
– Determination of area subject to silt and scour the
eating of the place.
– Measurement of quantity of water and flow of
water in connection of water schemes, Power
scheme and flood controls.
 Control Points
• To carry out Hydrography survey Horizontal as
well as Vertical Control is required

Horizontal Control : It consist triangulation or

traverse
Vertical Control : A number of precision
benchmark are established along the shore
line.
 Horizontal Control
 For large areas – 2nd or 3rd order triangulation
 For smaller areas – transit-tape traverse
 For small detached areas – stadia, graphical,
plane table methods
 For long narrow river – traverse on one side
 For width >1km – traverse on both sides
 Vertical Control
• Tide gauges are used to establish the common
datum before sounding is taken
• Datum : Mean sea level datum is used for all
types of surveys.
• Tidal Datum :For navigation purpose, tidal
datum used instead of the mean sea level
datum.
 Shore line survey
 It consist of:
 Determination or delineation of shorelines
 Location of shore details and prominent features
to which soundings may be connected
 Determination of low and high water lines
 Sounding
Measuring depth of water is termed as
sounding.

• Sounding rod
• Sounding cable
• Echo sounder
Sounding boat with rod
Sounding boat with lead line
Eco Sounder
 Methods of Locating Sounding
 From the shore
 Location by Tacheometer
 Location by two angles from the shore
 Location by Range and One angle from the shore
 From the boat
 Location by two angle from the boat
 Location by Range and One angle from the boat
 From both the shore and the boat
 Location by One angle from the shore and from the boat
 Location by Range and Time Intervals of the boat
 Location by Intersecting Ranges
Location by range and one angle from
shore
Location by two angles from the shore
Location by one angle from shore and
one from boat
Area of River/ Stretched Wire across
river
Area of River
 Calculation of Discharge
Discharge Q= A x V cumecs

Where
A= Area in m2
V=Velocity in m/s