Press Releases

Jul 29, 2002
Airborne Laser Mapping of Long Island's South Shore Begins

Contact:
Darren Johnson (PR@southampton.liu.edu)
(631) 287 8313
Fax: (631) 283 4081

Westhampton Beach, NY - In a press conference on July 23, at Gabreski Airport, a team of researchers from Southampton College and the International Hurricane Center announced the debut, high-tech laser-mapping of Long Island's South Shore. Following the conference, the team's computer-loaded propeller plane took off and began its study of the shoreline. In the days ahead, the Airborne Laser Terrain Mapping Team will continue flying along the southern coast of Long Island in a Cessna 337 airplane using break-through technology and a $1.3 million supercomputer to collect millions of precise data points each day. The system acquires data from a laser and color digital camera system mounted in the aircraft through contact with a series of global positioning satellites and ground stations. "It would take a team of 100 men and women a lifetime to do what we will do in a few days," said Dr. Stephen Leatherman, director of the project.

Leatherman outlined the project's four goals: to find out long-term trends of shoreline growth and recession, update government data that is currently obsolete, create a benchmark of Long Island's topography and sand movement with new 3-D imaging technology, and get preliminary data for coastal evacuation in case of a hurricane. The aircraft will make two trips along the south shore, going east and then west mapping the topography along a 1200-foot-wide swath of beach, taking approximately 33,000 measurements per second. The ALTM process does no harm to people viewing the process or to the environment, Dr. Leatherman stressed, and there is no need for beachgoers to take any extra precautions while the survey is underway. "This project will provide a rich data base for understanding our beaches and coastal processes," said Southampton College Marine Science Professor Robert Turner.

The last topographic mapping of Long Island was done by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1954 with an accuracy good to only about five feet. The ALTM project will produce maps good to a six-inch accuracy.

The project will provide public officials and researchers with invaluable data for predicting beach and coastline evolution as well as erosion and storm surge damage from coastal storms and hurricanes. The project is being funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is sponsored by the Eastern Long Island Coastal Conservation Alliance, the International Hurricane Center in Miami and Southampton College of Long Island University.

"Because we have old, out-dated data, people have no idea if they are in the flood zone or not. Five feet can be the difference in getting your feet wet or drowning," said Dr. Leatherman.