LIDAR mapping and coastal water bathymetric surveys of the Maltese Islands

Abstract

In the past months TerraImaging has performed the first fully integrated 3D survey of the Maltese Archipelago including the main land, the shoreline and the ocean floor within one nautical mile from the coastline. The survey is part of a project to develop a national environmental monitoring infrastructure and capacity, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, for the Maltese Environment and Planning Authority. It contributes to a baseline survey of the Maltese Islands and will complement side sonar and echosounder data, bathymetric and topographic LIDAR and oblique imagery, all acquired with the latest generation of equipment, to produce an integrated 3D perspective of the Maltese Islands. The result is a unique homogeneous data set of Malta from the deep bottom of the ocean to the top of the church spires. All data from the project will be viewable from a web portal, which will be launched towards the end of the project. Each data set poses its own challenges, not only during the acquisition but also in the data processing. During the presentation these aspects will be highlighted as well as the quality assessment of the separate data sets and the seamless merging of the data to provide a fully integrated 3D model of the Maltese Archipelago.