Newcastle SSSI Hydro and PCTMSL meetings April 2016

Beauty is not just Skin Deep – Acoustic Imaging Presents 2016 Don Wallace Memorial Lecture

Port of Newcastle, April 6-7, 2016.

Dr Doug Bergersen, Snr Geophysicist at Acoustic Imaging, was honoured to be asked to present the Don Wallace Memorial Lecture as part of the Surveyors and Spatial Science Institute Hydrography, Ports Australia and Permanent Committee on Tides and Mean Sea Level meetings.

Doug’s chosen topic was sub bottom profiling and how an understanding of subsurface seafloor structure can feed into efficient policy making in a port and harbour environment.  He presented case studies from data collected by Acoustic Imaging and detailed how interpretation of the sub bottom structure in conjunction with backscatter and bathymetric data collected from multibeam sonars can aid in a more complete interpretation of processes taking place in ports and harbours around Australia. 

Following the lecture some interesting questions were posed by the group leading to animated discussion which may have carried on into the night had it not been cut short by Acoustic Imaging’s offer to sponsor beers at Newcastle’s best small-scale Brewery (Foghorn Brewhouse) (www.foghorn.com.au).  Good times and dinner unit Commodore Brett Brace sounded the foghorn from a salvaged Norwegian vessel grounded off Newcastle a century-to-the-day before the epic rescue of the Pasha Bulker. The group regathered early the following day for the 52nd Permanent Committee on Tides and Mean Sea Level Meeting. Amongst the many interesting reports presented during the PCTMSL was an overview of the new Geodesy Markup Language – GeodesyML – presented by Dr Nicholas Brown A/G Geodesy Section Leader at Geoscience Australia. An Australian and NZ collaboration with input from international agencies GeodesyML will help all users of geospatial data to exchange data and metadata. More information here http://geodesyml.org/