葫芦影业

By Jocelyn Cruz, Senior Environmental Science Major

Background

I learned about the EAS Hydrographic Mapping class through an email from my academic adviser. It was very appealing: 2-weeks long, free, open to all majors, no prerequisites. It was convenient to me as well, as I had an internship lined up for the summer, and I wanted to knock out another elective before my upcoming final semester.

The Hydrographic Mapping course was a hands-on industry training morphed into a 2- week long summer semester class being offered jointly by The Hydrographic Society of America (THSOA) Houston Chapter and UH through a grant from the Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academy of Sciences. The class was led by Dr. William Sagerand Dr. Robert Stewart, both geophysics professors at UH, with assistance from Mr. Kevin Tomanka, a member of THOSA. Another portion of the class, led by Dr. Sissy Wong, included research based on the students and their experiences during the course.

Hydrography is the field of visualizing and mapping the surfaces of bodies of water. These can range from open oceans to rivers inland. Surveying is the primary way that hydrographers obtain a swath of bathymetry data, using multibeam echo sounders that sweep the surface of a body of water from a ship. Objects such pipelines, shipwrecks, and shoals can be visualized using this technology. Multibeam echo sounders are used frequently in deep sea surveying, but, for this course, we focused on shallow coastal areas. Hydrography is vital in ensuring maritime transportation moves smoothly and safely. It is also essential for producing nautical charts that ships use to navigate the open ocean. Hydrography is the basis for all things related to the ocean.

Hydrographic mapping as an industry is a growing business. Any inland or offshore infrastructure needs careful planning before it begins construction. A survey is a vital part of that process and a surveyor needs to oversee this. As it so happens, the education requirements for this position are not an advanced degree or a 4.0 GPA. Survey companies are hunting eagerly for STEM majors with any related degree and others with basic earth science knowledge to train and mold for the job.

Students who participated in the class hailed from a variety of majors! There were several geology and geophysics majors (many who were double majoring). A few environmental science majors, some physics majors sprinkled in, and two math majors were also selected to take this course. The class was a mix of undergraduates, M.S., and Ph.D. students!

The goal of this course was to teach any interested student, from this wide array of backgrounds, a crash course into the world of high-resolution sonar mapping (also known as hydrography) and provide a unique opportunity to meet with industry professionals and conduct field work related to sonar work.

Lectures

We started the morning with an introduction to the course outline and some talks from Dr. Sager and Dr. Wong, the professor in charge of the education portion of the study. Over the course of two days, we discussed the basics of sonar data collection, including navigation, mapping, sonar imaging, and seismic reflection profiling.

Following our week of field trips, Dr. Julia Wellner gave a presentation about Texas sedimentology and coastal oceanography, which included discussions over the current landscape of Antarctica and drivers of changing sea level, and the sediment transport before and after Hurricane Harvey.

Field Work

The highlight of the course was being able apply our knowledge from the course to a survey trip. It was an extraordinary opportunity.

On the first day, mobilize the R/V Trident at Texas A&M Galveston for the research voyages she would embark on in the coming days. We explored the ship at the guidance of the captain and learned about the sonar equipment that was being attached onto the ship. Students were able to help set up the side sonar.

Day Two brought most of the class to the Bayland Marina where we were invited to lunch at O鈥橬eals on the Water. There, we watched a lecture from an employee of Norbit, a technological company from Norway. They taught us about wideband multibeam sonar, and the equipment utilized in it. Later, we were able to board the EAS pontoon boat, the R/V Mishipeshu, Norbit had fitted with the necessary sonar equipment and take it out for a demo test out on the Houston Ship Channel.

Day Three was my scheduled day out on the Trident. The EdgeTech side sonar had technical difficulties, so the Trident crew had to make call to troubleshoot. Unfortunately Trident was experiencing water pressure issues, which made it impossible to set sail safely. The rest of the planned voyages were cancelled because there would not be enough time to fix the problem before the course was complete.

On Day Four, we toured the Fugro office in Katy, arranged by Jayme McBee, a Ph.D. student of Dr. Sager鈥檚 who works there. Fugro is a geotechnical company that specializes in various technical projects that pertain to the surface and shallow subsurface of the Earth. We were shown their office area and were able to see the amenities that employees enjoy.

We listened to a presentation from Helen Stewart, a professional hydrographer from Fugro, which included a brief history of the field and what a hydrographer does in the industry. Fugro hosted a career panel where the class was able to established and newer employees their experiences and advice related to geophysics industry careers.

On the last day, we returned to O鈥橬eals on the Water for lunch before listening to a lecture by R2Sonic about multibeam echosounders and the type of projects where they have been used. Afterwards, students who hadn鈥檛 been on the pontoon boat were given the chance to do so.

Class Exercises

One of the first exercises we did in the class was work on the survey planning using the software packages Kingdom Suite and EIVA Navipac. We were given data on Excel that had to be translated to a usable format. Using that data, we were able to create a survey plan, which is the path that the ship would take to collect data.

We interpreted the data and produced a deliverable after the lengthy week of field work and demonstrations. We used data collected from the Norbit demo day in Baytown. Mr. Kevin Tomanka from THSOA introduced us to NaviModel and the process of uploading data into the software and cleaning the noise in the data with a variety of tools.

In Kingdom Suite, we created multiple chirp sonar profiles from the survey lines and identified points of interest in them.

Using NaviModel, we uploaded given data to create a Digital Terrain Model from a site in Kemah. We were able to visualize a sunken ship in the water!

Conclusion

As an environmental scientist, this course was not what I had expected it to be. I thought I would be watching from the sidelines as the professionals did all the work for us. Instead, we were the professionals throughout the course, from planning to conducting the survey plan during field trips we embarked on. While we lost the opportunity to board the Trident for a survey trip, the field trip days helped in supplementing the hands-on experience the class aimed to give. Regardless of major, students learned something new and gained a new perspective on a unique subset of geoscience. Students who do not have interest in pursuing this industry walked away with new software and field work skills that many would be hard pressed finding anywhere else in the academia world.

A piece of knowledge I carry from this course is dealing with the complications of data loading into specialized software. Navigating new software takes patience and an open mind to the complexities of the program.  My experience with learning NaviModel and Kingdom Suite enabled me to take on new complicated software at my internship at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), where I work in the Leaking Petroleum Storage Tank Division dealing with spills from storage tanks and assisting in remediation efforts. I hope to stay in the public sector with the goal of working at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

This area is rapidly growing. Hydrographic mapping is a booming industry that shows no signs of slowing down, and the demand for capable surveyors is only rising. Most recent hires in the hydrography industry have been people with only a bachelor鈥檚 degree. This 2-week summer course is planned for Summer 2026. I highly encourage anyone interested to apply when the opportunity comes around.