Quantum Spatial Completes Data Acquisition for NOAA’s Largest Coastal Mapping Project

Quantum Spatial, an NV5 company, has completed the data acquisition phase for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) largest coastal mapping project, covering approximately 12,000 square miles of shoreline across the Eastern Seaboard, Gulf Coast, Pacific regions, and U.S. island territories. The project updates coastal survey data for areas that, in some cases, had not been comprehensively mapped for more than a century.

Serving as the prime contractor under NOAA’s Coastal and Geospatial Services contract, Quantum Spatial deployed an advanced multi-sensor approach combining topographic lidar, bathymetric lidar, and high-resolution digital imagery. This integrated method enabled accurate mapping of both shoreline terrain and varying water depths, including shallow coastal zones that are difficult to survey using traditional hydrographic techniques.

The newly collected data will support NOAA’s nautical charting, shoreline mapping, geodesy services, marine debris monitoring, and marine resource management initiatives. Federal, state, and local agencies, along with commercial and public users, will also benefit from the dataset for applications such as flood and storm-surge modeling, transportation planning, sediment transport analysis, and fisheries management.

The coastal mapping initiative was funded through congressional supplemental appropriations following major storm events in 2018, including Hurricanes Florence and Michael and Typhoon Yutu. Initial project deliverables cover regions in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, with the complete dataset scheduled for public release in 2021.

By combining cutting-edge remote sensing technologies with large-scale processing and analytics capabilities, Quantum Spatial continues to support national coastal resilience efforts while providing critical geospatial intelligence that enables improved environmental monitoring, infrastructure planning, and emergency preparedness.