LiDAR technologies on a mission to protect coastal blue carbon ecosystems

Blue carbon ecosystems are important for their capability of storing carbon from the atmosphere and ocean within the plants and sediments below. They include vegetated habitats like mangroves, seagrass, and salt marshes. Due to their importance in life, the global leader in digital reality solutions, Hexagon AB, announced its R-evolution’s efforts to map the threatened coastal ecosystems of the Caribbean islands. 

Sustainability agenda

Hexagon is also working along with a leading organization in the protection of marine environments known as  Beneath The Wave. With airborne bathymetric LiDAR technologies, they’ll be able to map, detect, and capture critical details about this vital habitat, including its composition and extent. The organization has found some interesting data about these ecosystems, such as tiger sharks patrolling dense seagrass meadows. To protect and restore these areas, R-evolution – Hexagon’s business venture focused on complex environmental challenges – is helping validate the findings with the Leica Chiroptera 4X, one of Hexagon’s airborne bathymetric LiDAR solutions. 

Hexagon and R-evolution

The airborne bathymetry solution enables accurate mapping of thousands of square kilometers and as much as 30 meters of water depth in just a few days. The cost-effective, rapid survey, high-resolution point clouds, and aerial imagery will allow Beneath The Waves organization to scale up its marine research. Both Hexagon and R-evolution continue to bring cutting-edge technology to climate change mitigation strategies. Hexagon’s CEO Ola Rollén, mentioned how the company has been a major player in the airborne bathymetric LiDAR industry for many years. Along with R-evolution and Beneath The Waves they expect to help the world achieve its environmental goals and yield groundbreaking results for blue carbon conservation.

With new digital reality solutions and LiDAR technologies, the protection of coastal blue carbon systems is more possible than ever. Having big companies focus on environmentally socially responsible projects speaks a lot about their values. These ecosystems are rapidly disappearing in many parts of the world and thus solving these environmental challenges will come a long way for all living species.