ABU DHABI, UAE, and BRISTOL, UK – Proteus announced a global agreement with DigitalGlobe Inc. in which Proteus will provide bathymetric and seabed mapping products derived from high-resolution eight-band WorldView-2 satellite imagery. The Proteus seabed surveys have been developed for environmental, oil and gas, marine biology and other coastal zone applications.

“The Proteus-DigitalGlobe relationship enables us to bring terrestrial and marine data products to the global market,” said David Critchley, Proteus CEO. “We look forward to working with DigitalGlobe to offer a variety of rapidly-to-deploy, cost-effective geospatial solutions starting with bathymetric data.”

In 2011, Proteus delivered several bathymetric and seabed classification projects to customers in the Middle East and Caribbean, which validated the benefits of using satellite imagery for bathymetric mapping.

“The Proteus technique generates highly accurate bathymetric and seabed surveys in the coastal zone from multispectral DigitalGlobe WorldView-2 imagery in a fraction of the time required for traditional methods,” said Critchley. “And the cost of the satellite-derived surveys is five to 10 percent of those other techniques.”

Compared with traditional hydrographic mapping methods such as airborne LiDAR or marine sonar, satellite-derived bathymetry and seabed classification offer many advantages. Satellite data provides instant large-area coverage, increasing the speed of turnaround of deliverables and enables frequent area refresh to track change. There are no mobilization fees or local permissions necessary, and the space-borne technique allows safe acquisition of data in challenging and remote areas.

Since there is no need for people or equipment onsite, this method also has no detrimental impact on the environment that is being surveyed. Importantly, this surveying technique also has high accuracy, enabling customers to use the derived products for engineering, environmental monitoring and strategic geospatial planning applications.

For more information on Proteus products, see www.proteusgeo.com.