This summer GEODIS, the largest geoinformation company in Central Europe, carried out detailed documentation along 125 km of the Elbe-Vltava watercourse using its own MOMAS mobile mapping system with a range of up to 300 m. The mapping was executed together with the National Navigation Authority, which had commissioned GEODIS for this project. The entire event took a total of three days. The cruise began in Roudnice nad Labem and continued through Prague, which was undoubtedly the most interesting part of the route, as far as Slapy Reservoir and back again.
In 2010, for the very first time in history, GEODIS used a mobile mapping system positioned on the prow of a boat to chart the bank of the river Elbe. That project was carried out using the IP-S2 system. This August, just like last year, GEODIS used the MOMAS system, which consists of a spherical camera, two external high-resolution cameras and two laser scanners with a range of up to 300 m. This made it easy to map out not just the watercourse itself, but also the banks and the areas immediately adjacent to them. This process allowed the right bank to be mapped out first, and then the left bank on the way back, while assuring the highest possible imaging quality. The data that GEODIS provided to the National Navigation Authority can be used, for example, for passports of traffic signs on the river, inspections of bridges, vegetation, harbours, anchorages, and other features along and around the river. The data can also be used as source for the creation of flood models.
Undoubtedly the most interesting and also most demanding stretch of the Elbe-Vltava watercourse was the centre of Prague, where a large number of boats are moored all year round; these had to be removed to allow the banks of the Vltava to be mapped without any obstacles. This required some relatively complex manoeuvring, during which all the boats of the right bank of the Vltava were first moved to the left bank to allow the right section of the bank to be mapped as far as the Prague district of Troja. In the meantime, all the boats were then moved from the left bank to the right bank, allowing the left bank to be mapped on the return journey. During the course of one day the Vltava was completely cleared in the centre of Prague, with the exception of three objects which could not be moved. After mapping the Prague stretch of the Vltava, the process continued on up to the Slapy Reservoir and from there back again along the right bank of the river to Roudnice nad Labem.
GEODIS provided the National Navigation Authority with data for the PanoramaGIS® desktop application, composed of thousands of images and laser point clouds which together create a complex model for measurement and visualisation purposes. The existing data in the PanoramaGIS® web application will be updated very soon. The three-day project covered a total of 250 km (there and back) and in 26 hours 106 517 panoramic images and countless laser points were collected. The detail of the data acquired is extremely high, and the excellent quality was also confirmed by Ing. Miroslav Rychtarík from the National Navigation Authority: “The data acquired is so detailed that it is possible to measure the underpass height of bridges, clearance field width, slack on power lines, buoy positions, craft markings, floating bridges and other facilities.”