The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) Upgrades RIEGL LiDAR System

Contributors to the CCCCC LiDAR program pose with the Maya Island Air special missions aircraft in the background. 

RIEGL USA is excited to announce that the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), through the United States Agency for Aid and International Development (USAID)-funded Climate Change Adaptation Program (CCAP), has successfully completed an upgrade to its RIEGL VQ-880-G LiDAR System. The purpose of the upgrade is to enhance the technical efficiencies and capabilities of the system to ensure continued relevance to planned activities and the quality of the system’s outputs. The upgrades were completed in December 2020.  

RIEGL VQ-880-G,installed inside the Maya Island Air Cessna T206H aircraft.

The Centre’s airborne bathymetric laser scanning system was upgraded with increased infrared channel performance, making it particularly suited for coastal mapping and in-land waterways and offers high-density topographic and bathymetric water depth measurement capability in shallow waters. As a result, the Centre has increased their capacity to meet the coastal topographic and bathymetric needs of the Caribbean Region and wider afield.

“We are extremely pleased to have been selected by Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre to provide bathymetric sensor support for their aerial collection programs”, said Michael Sitar, RIEGL USA’s Division Director for Airborne Scanning Systems.  “The recent upgrade of the Centre’s VQ-880-G includes enhanced IR range performance and increased laser emission rates for higher on-shore point densities, as well as mechanical and optical improvements in the bathymetric green laser channel.  We look forward to supporting Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre in their upcoming survey campaigns.”

LiDAR technology is capable of simultaneously gathering topographic and bathymetric (depth of the sea floor) data, which is used to provide detailed information of the region’s coastal areas, reefs, and sea floor to facilitate flood and inundation mapping among other products.

Maya Island Air special missions TURBO T206H STATIONAIR aircraft customized for LiDAR missions.  The LiDAR program is a partnership arrangement between the privately owned company, Maya Island Air and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre.

The Centre’s Assistant Executive Director, Dr. Mark Bynoe, in commenting about the upgrade noted, “The Centre remains committed to pursuing technological transformation in an effort to collect and process quality, high resolution data to inform strategic development planning, resilience building and risk mitigation. This latest acquisition has increased the Centre’s capabilities to perform LiDAR surveys in a competitive marketplace.”

The Centre’s RIEGL LiDAR System, which was acquired thanks to the Barbados-based USAID Eastern and Southern Caribbean Office, the Caribbean Development Bank, the Government of Italy, and Maya Island Air, will significantly boost the Caribbean’s ability to limit the ravages of climate change by improving its capability to monitor and plan for physical changes to the land and marine environments.

RIEGL is proud to assist the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre’s coastal topographic and bathymetric needs of the Caribbean Region and surrounding areas.

Staff of Maya Island Air , RIEGL and CCCCC posing with the Maya Island Air special missions LiDAR aircraft in the background.

About RIEGL:

RIEGL is an international leading provider of cutting-edge technology in airborne, mobile, terrestrial, industrial and unmanned laser scanning solutions.

RIEGL has been producing LiDAR systems commercially and focuses on pulsed time-of-flight laser radar technology in multiple wavelengths.

RIEGL’s core technology, the digitization of LiDAR signals (“Waveform LiDAR”), provides unique methodologies for resolving range ambiguities, multiple targets per laser shots, optimum distribution of measurements, calibrated amplitudes and reflectance estimates, as well as the seamless integration and calibration of systems.

RIEGL’s Ultimate LiDARTM 3D scanners offer a wide array of performance characteristics and serve as a platform for continuing Innovation in 3D for the LiDAR industry.

From the first inquiry, to purchase and integration of the system, as well as training and support, RIEGL maintains an outstanding history of reliability and support to their customers.

Worldwide sales, training, support and services are delivered from RIEGL’s headquarters in Austria; main offices in the USA, Japan, China, Australia and Canada; and a worldwide network of representatives.

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