• CASE STUDY
World Hydrography Day Seminar By Charlie Firth, Taine Hallberg, Amira Jain, Emily Tidey
I
n July, hydrographers from around New Zealand met at
vessels with a beam of 109 feet or more. The new system
the annual NZ Region (NZR) Australasian Hydrographic
enables these large vessels to achieve positioning and rate
Society (AHS) seminar, hosted this year by the Royal New
of turn data to the centimetre, which is necessary for safe
Zealand Navy (RNZN) at their base in Devonport, Auckland.
navigation through confined spaces. Gary and his team
We recognised World Hydrography Day (https://iho.int/
tested the system in New Zealand on the Lyttelton Port
en/world-hydrography-day) with a range of interesting
passenger ferry and the Interislander, as well as in novel
presentations, student sponsorship and time with other
ways such as taking it through the Lyttelton tunnel for
like-minded surveyors.
inertial navigation system (INS) testing.
Thirteen students from around Aotearoa NZ were sponsored by the NZR AHS to participate. They either presented on the day or prepared this write-up, photos and other
Photo R. Kuhn
Photo G. Chisholm
social media outputs.
Installation of the GNSS antennas on the vessel.
What’s Going On at Otago? University of Otago students Attendees’ group photo with Auckland Harbour in the background.
Brayden Foote, Joseph Anderson and Amy Cadwell shared
The MPS566 Pilot System: Gary Chisholm, from Trimble,
their recent learnings from SURV322, the introductory
opened the seminar with discussion of a pilot guidance
course for hydrographic surveying. They discussed their
system that was designed, built and tested in New Zealand,
two main projects – a wharf survey and the other in a
and is now used on the Panama Canal. This is a recent
deeper section of the harbour – which were fun experi-
requirement mandated by the Panama Canal Authority for
ences through which they gained great base knowledge
24 SURVEYING+SPATIAL • Issue 117 Spring Edition 2024