Executive Summary:

Integration of water- and land-based geospatial data often stops in the water-land interface zone where shoreline is because of various definitions of reference frames (depth and elevation), different shorelines (high/low water, vegetation line, and tide-coordinated), and ever changing coastal features. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Committee on National Needs for Coastal Mapping and Charting recommended an ultimate seamless water-land transition infrastructure as a goal for future coastal geospatial data acquisition and applications (NAS 2003 and 2004). It calls for an integrated methodology that will allow integration of geospatial coastal data without obstacles of datum issues, and will use hydrodynamic modeling and GIS technology to create shorelines of various definitions without actual repeated costly survey. The NAS’s recommendation matches exactly the NGA’s focus in Research Area 1.

This research will investigate the potential of seamless integration of geospatial data from water to land. The objectives of this research project are:

a) to develop a strategy and a system for seamless transformation of vertical and horizontal datums used in navigation, bathymetry, coastal management, and topographic mapping,

b) to develop a spatio-temporal modeling system that produces shorelines with different water levels from Coastal Terrain Models (CTM: bathymetry + topography) and Water Surface Models (WSM),

c) to develop a hydrological modeling system that produces WSM needed for shoreline generation and datum conversion, and

d) to validate the methodology using long term observations of shorelines, water gauge stations, buoys, and satellite altimetry data. The long-term goal is to research and develop a technology that will seamlessly integrate all geospatial data from water to land and to air.

If successfully completed, this project will provide an innovative approach toward seamless integration of geospatial data from water to land. The advantages of such a fundamental spatio-temporal modeling system include:

a) geospatial data on both sides of the shoreline can be integrated in a common vertical and horizontal datum frame seamlessly,

b) shorelines with different definitions can be generated through the modeling system in a GIS environment, and

c) the integrated geospatial data can be used to monitor dynamic changes in the water-land interface zone.

Full Proposal: HM1582-04-BAA-0002