LogicaCMG Wins €1m Coastchart Contract from ESA

Wide-swath Envisat radar image (400km wide) over the coastline of Togo, Benin and Nigeria. The city of Lagos (Nigeria) is clearly visible on the coast in the mid-left part of the image. The river entrances of Escravos and Forcados are well shown on the right part of the image. (ESA photo)

July 30/Satnews Daily/ -- Management and consulting firm LogicaCMG has won a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) for a €1m a coastline information project called Coastchart. The project aims to provide hydrographic offices with a system that allows standard navigation charts to be updated with accurate coastline information derived from space-based observations.

ESA conceived the Coastchart project within its Data User Element (DUE) program. LogicaCMG teamed up with PCI in Canada, BRGM and BOOST Technologies in France and Remote Sensing Applications Consultants, Plymouth University and University College London in the UK to tender for the work against tough European competition.

The project was prompted by a significant lack of coastal information due to the difficulty and cost of coastal surveys. In many places, particularly in developing countries, the position of the shoreline is not accurately known. In addition the coastal information shown on marine charts is often old, which can present a risk to shipping.

The primary objective of this two year project is to deliver a coastline delineation system to hydrographic offices in France (SHOM) and the UK (UKHO). In addition the project will delineate 6000 km of coastline along the West African coast and deliver data products from this work to chart compilers in the hydrographic offices.

The main data source used in the Coastchart system will be the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) on Envisat, ESA’s flagship satellite for observing the Earth. Due to its viewing flexibility and cloud penetrating capability ASAR radar allows images to be acquired that coincide with the time of high tide at key locations along the coast – even in the cloudy tropics.