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Borrow Areas Representative Areas of Experience:
Summaries of CSA's Representative Borrow Area Projects Sand Borrow Areas Along Collier County, Florida CSA Inernational conducted various studies to support the Collier County Beach Management Project during 1994 and 1995. CSA provided seismic profiling, side-scan sonar, bathymetric, RoxAnn, hard and live bottom mapping, tidal, sediment and infauna, and magnetometer services. The purpose of the surveys was to collect necessary data from numerous sand source borrow areas along the Collier County coastline. The suite of oceanographic tools used to collect the data consisted of one of CSA's precision Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) navigation systems for horizontal control, survey navigation, and data collection; a CHIRP subbottom profiling system for collection of geotechnical data; a Klein dual frequency side-scan sonar system for mapping hard bottom areas; an Odom Echotrac precision survey fathometer; a Microtide pressure-recording tide gauge; and one of CSA's "drop video" systems that enabled the survey team to rapidly visually groundtruth the side-scan sonar target areas for live bottom determinations. CSA's RoxAnn Seabed Classification System was used to further assist in the live bottom determinations. Benthic samples were collected using diver infaunal corers. A Geometrics marine proton magnetometer system was used to determine absence/presence of any cultural resources. Survey data were processed, interpreted, and mapped using a variety of CSA's post-processing software packages. Final products included a report, interpreted data records, maps, and digital data on disks including the CAD drawings that produced the maps. Coast of Florida Study CSA International conducted the project titled "Coast of Florida Study - Region III, Mapping and Classification of Hard Bottom Areas in Coastal Waters" for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Jacksonville District from 1992 to 1994. The survey covered the region from the northern Palm Beach County Line down to the northern edge of Biscayne National Park. CSA collected approximately 920 line miles of side-scan sonar and bathymetric data offshore of Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade Counties. These data were ground truthed using CSA's underwater video and still camera system. All survey tasks were horizontally controlled using a Differential Global Positioning System. The survey data were used to map the area between the nearshore 10-foot depth contour out to the 100-foot depth contour. Final products consisted of over 146 maps depicting significant seafloor features, bathymetric contours, and survey track lines on hard copy and magnetic disk for inclusion in the USACE Coast of Florida Study Geographic Information System Database. Three supplemental reports described the project and detailed the results for Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade Counties. A separate Data Inventory also was produced and delivered. During 1994 and 1995, CSA prepared sections of an environmental impact assessment document for Region III (Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade Counties) of The Coast of Florida Erosion and Storm Effects Study. The sections included information on habitats and biological assemblages associated with the intertidal zone and potential offshore sand borrow areas, and the effects of aragonite sand on sea turtle nesting behavior. Hard Bottom Mapping for Nine Borrow Areas Offshoe St. Petersburg, Florida CSA International provided hard bottom mapping services for nine sand source borrow areas in nearshore waters of Pinellas County offshore St. Petersburg, Florida during 1998. Interfaced to a computer-controlled navigation system using the HYPACK software package, a side-scan sonar system and precision survey fathometer were used by CSA personnel to map and classify hard bottom areas. Classified polygons outlining hard bottom areas were digitized from paper scrolls of approximately 600 line miles of data into new independent layers of an existing AutoCad basemap drawing that contained the borrow area boundaries. Bathymetric contouring also was added to the drawing providing a digital deliverable that could import easily into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Geographic Information System Database and any dredging project drawings. Geophysical and Geotechnical Services to Identify a Sand Source off Tortla, British Virgin Islands CSA Internatioanl was contracted to provide geophysical (side-scan sonar and subbottom profiler) and geotechnical (vibracore) services in support of the design of a runway extension for the Beef Island International Airport on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The purpose of the survey was to identify a suitable sand source to support the runway extension.
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