Coastal & Environmental Monitoring Services

The professionals that comprise our Coastal and Environmental Monitoring Services are not only highly trained, but they have the specific technical expertise in the installation, operation, maintenance, and application of monitoring systems (data collection platforms) in the wetland, estuary, and marine environments. Additionally, our group of professionals has experience in media sampling including but not limited to Surface Water Sampling, Water Column Sampling, Sediment Sampling and data collection for hydrologic models.

In the past, ENCOS pas provided data collection services for engineering firms, state government agencies and federal government agencies. This data has been used for the development of complex hydrologic models and for project specific compliance programs.

Wave Attenuation Across Near Shore Breakwaters

ENCOS was contracted by HDR, Inc. to collect wave data at three near shore locations and one offshore location. The study area is located south of the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. HDR constructed two breakwaters for a shoreline protection demonstration project under contract for the Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration. ENCOS installed one Teledyne RD Instruments Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) offshore to measure dominant wave period, direction, and wave height. ENCOS installed one control station and two stations behind the HDR constructed breakwaters to measure dominant wave period, wave height, and water level. Three (3) iSic 3100 data loggers were interfaced with a NexSens Accustage vented pressure sensor to collect the data. The near shore stations are set to log data every 60 minutes and collect 1024 wave burst samples over a 4 minute period. The data is processed in the data logger and is transmitted hourly. The raw burst data and the processed data is stored remotely in an offsite database. Each data logger is connected to a cellular modem for data transmission and offsite storage. The ability to monitor, in real time, the pressure sensors and data loggers allow continuous monitoring of the sites for data integrity and the correction of potential problems. ENCOS also installed a Vaisala WXT 520 weather station that provides air temperature, wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, and daily rainfall real time on an hourly basis. The water levels are converted to NAVD 88.

Data Collection For Hydrologic Model Development

ENCOS was sub-contracted to Arcadis to design and install 13 hydrographic data collection stations that collected water level and salinity data at mid water depth and 2 meteorological stations in the Violet Freshwater Diversion Project (PO-35) Area. ENCOS provided monthly servicing of the water level instruments, data download, and calibration, of the water level instruments. Each water level instrument wass surveyed and the water level data was corrected to North American Vertical Datum 1988 (NAVD 88). The two weather stations transmitted data real-time on an hourly basis. Once the data was recovered ENCOS performed QA/QC according to OCPR protocols and provided this data in EXCEL format.

ENCOS was contracted to perform two synoptic discharge measurements, using a boat mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP), that represented typical summer and winter weather conditions of the project area. The data collected was for input into a hydrologic model that will assist in the design, planning, and construction of the diversion.

Water Velocity and Water Elevation Study

ENCOS was subcontracted through Moffatt & Nichol Engineers to collect water velocity, water direction, and water elevation data for the Alabama Department of Transportation for an inlet study to determine maintenance strategies for Little Lagoon Pass.

ENCOS used an R D Instrument Workhorse Monitor operating at 1200kHz mounted to an ALDOT fabricated weighted sled to collect water velocity and direction in vertical strata from near the instrument to near the surface.

ENCOS installed two YSI 600 OMS vented level datasondes to measure water elevation, water temperature, specific conductance, and salinity at two locations in the lagoon north of Hwy. 182 in Gulfshores, AL. These datasondes measured vented water level, specific conductance, salinity, and water temperature. The datasondes were surveyed to obtain horizontal and vertical coordinates. The surveyed data was used to correlate the water elevation data to NAVD 88.