Case Study: Single-Pass Bank-to-Bank Survey of China’s Deepest River Channel

The Qing River (清江), a major tributary of the Yangtze, has been dramatically reshaped by the construction of three hydropower dams — Shuibuya (水布垭, 230 m deep), Geheyan (隔河岩), and Gaobazhou (高坝洲) — since the 1980s.

To demonstrate the performance of the NORBIT WINGHEAD ultra-high-resolution multibeam sonar, our team conducted a survey designed to demonstrate its wide swath coverage capabilities in shallow to mid-water environments.

For this purpose, we selected China’s deepest inland water body, providing the ideal conditions to highlight the WINGHEAD’s ability to achieve complete bank-to-bank coverage in a single pass. The NORBIT DCT software was used for real-time data acquisition, with the full system installation completed in approximately one hour onboard an ad hoc survey vessel.

The survey was a success, with the resulting data clearly demonstrating the WINGHEAD’s precision, efficiency, and adaptability — as presented in the following pages