Monitoring & Aerial Imagery
Westpeak Engineering has helped many clients better understand their coastal and estuarine shorelines and assets by completing monitoring and capturing aerial imagery. These services include seasonal photo and vegetation line monitoring, the installation and operation of fixed monitoring cameras, asset condition inspections and the capture of orthorectified aerial imagery.
Westpeak has the capability to provide the following services:
- Design and establishment of coastal, estuarine and asset based monitoring programs.
- Implementation of seasonal shoreline monitoring, including survey profiles, inspections and photos.
- Condition inspections of assets, including jetties, seawalls, breakwaters, groynes and boat ramps.
- Installation and operation of fixed monitoring cameras to identify higher resolution temporal changes to shorelines or to show construction progress.
- Vegetation line mapping of available aerial imagery, including that taken by Westpeak Engineering.
- High resolution orthorectified drone aerial imagery capture to complement or provide comparison with other databases (such as Google, Landgate and Nearmap) or be used for documentation purposes.
- Analysis and documentation of the above, including identified changes, remaining useful life and maintenance or management recommendations.
Highlights
Recently, Westpeak Engineering were able to assist the City of Rockingham to monitor/inspect several coastal areas of concern following a severe winter storm. This included the Tern Bank sand bar which was encroaching on the adjacent navigation channel and the Mersey Point Seawall tie in and adjoining shoreline which had been significantly eroded. In both instances Westpeak was able to capture high resolution orthorectified aerial imagery at very short notice to fill the gap in imagery available on other databases (approximately monthly). The imagery has subsequently been used to design and document management works.
Challenges
- Condition monitoring of near or below waterline assets, such as jetty substructures, piles and lower portions of seawalls, breakwaters, groynes and boat ramps.
- Safe and timely monitoring of rubble mound structures, such as seawalls, breakwaters and groynes.
Solutions
- Westpeak inspects near waterline assets at low tide and in favourable weather conditions to ensure optimal visibility. Drone imagery with a polarised lens that helps to penetrate the water has also proved to be extremely useful to inspect lower portions of rubble mound structures. Lastly, Westpeak has good relationships with and can engage/manage dive teams to inspect below waterline assets, including jetty substructures, boat ramps and pile foundations.
- Westpeak conducts near waterline inspections with a spotter and life jackets for safety. Before arranging and traveling to complete an inspection near water, metocean conditions are always checked. Westpeak has employed the use of its drones, in conjunction with ground based visual observations/photos, to efficiently conduct rubble mound structure inspections, rather than clambering over rocks in an unsafe and generally inefficient manner.
- All of Westpeak’s staff are CASA accredited Remote Pilots (RePL).
