Leading Geospatial Firm to Present Innovations in SAR Analytics, AI-Powered Large Language Models and Coastal Surveying Solutions that Leverage Topobathymetry to Connect Land and Sea
Coastal GeoTools, Wilmington, N.C. – January 21, 2025 – NV5, the world’s leading provider of geospatial software and services, will showcase its solutions for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) analytics, coastal and nearshore surveying, large language model (LLM) learning using artificial intelligence (AI) and enterprise GIS (eGIS), as well as projects completed for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), during Coastal GeoTools 2025, taking place January 27-30 in Wilmington, N.C.
At its booth, NV5 will demonstrate its SAR Analytics Software, which provides timely, unparalleled insights into the Earth’s surface regardless of weather conditions. It will also feature how NV5 uses topographic and topobathymetric lidar to give a full picture from land to sea in its coastal and nearshore surveying work. NV5’s Data Science group will demonstrate a number of their latest eGIS initiatives, with a focus on LLM solutions, like the ChatDQM interface, and how they can use machine learning models to support efforts like anomaly detection from dredging vessel sensor observations.
Subject matter experts from NV5 will be among featured presenters at the Coastal GeoTools educational sessions, including:
Harmonizing Hydrography, Wetlands and Land Cover Data for Better Informed Decision Making
Tuesday, January 28 – 2 p.m.-3 p.m. – Salon A: High-Resolution Land Cover
The One Map Project, funded by the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program using NOAA Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation (BIL) grants, has created a set of “harmonized” hydrography, wetlands and land cover datasets from recent high-resolution lidar and imagery for three of Green Bay’s HUC10 coastal watersheds, to assess and rank them for future habitat restoration and conservation competitive grants. NV5 produced the three harmonized datasets using its extensive experience with the USGS 3D Hydrography (3DHP), USFWS National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) and NOAA Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) one meter land cover. In the One Map process, draft layers are compared to adjust differing interpretations of the same feature, as well as catch any missing or logically incongruent elements. The addition of the one meter, level two C-CAP land cover, as well as the level three detailed agriculture and forest classes, makes it possible to consider an ecosystemwide perspective that vastly improves the interpretation and usefulness of all the layers. During this presentation, NV5’s Vice President of Solutions Engineering Andrew Brenner and Technical Domain Expert Chris Robinson, will join with Jim Giglierano of the Wisconsin Department of Administration and Jeff DuMez of the Brown County Planning and Land Services Department to provide an overview and highlight examples of the data development and harmonization process, and share early applications of the new layers to coastal habitat, watershed and climate resilience efforts in the Green Bay region.
Developing Methods for Determining If and Why Dredging Vessel Sensor Data is Anomalous
Wednesday, January 29 – 2 p.m.-3 p.m. – Salon B: Ocean Planning – Part 1
NV5’s Geospatial Data Scientist for eGIS Solutions Ross Winans, Team Leader Gabe Sataloff and Geospatial Data Scientist Athena Liu will be joined by Jesse Hall, Andrew Keith and Rhonda Lenoir of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to how the discuss the USACE Dredging Quality Management (DQM) Program partnered with NV5 to develop a series of statistical and machine learning methods to identify dredge states and flag anomalous data from raw sensor observation data. Attributes from the sensor data, such as drag arm’s depth, the vessel speed and the vessel’s movement, were validated and used to train machine learning models that can identify the dredging vessel’s operational state, such as dredging, turning and traveling. To enrich the raw data and add context to potential anomalies, the two organizations also developed pipelines using meteorological and oceanographic data from several authoritative data providers, such as NOAA and the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The Great Marine Minerals Migration: Reforging the Back and Front Ends of an Established GIS in the Cloud and AGOL, Respectively
Thursday, January 30 – 9 a.m.-10:30 a.m. – Salon B: Geospatial Tools in Coastal Management
After developing an enterprise geodatabase and custom-coded web application called the Marine Minerals Information System (MMIS) for BOEM’s Marine Minerals Program (MMP), NV5 was tasked with migrating the MMIS enterprise database to the cloud and reforging the web application via COTS software. The MMIS is a collection of over 30 years of geophysical (e.g., shallow seismic, bathymetry, and sidescan sonar) and geotechnical (e.g., vibracore and sediment grab locations and associated laboratory analyses) derived data and information products. These datasets are critical to supporting Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) beach nourishment and coastal storm risk management projects and helping to mitigate OCS space-use conflicts. NV5’s eGIS Team Lead Emily Sandrowicz and eGIS Analyst Michael Forlenza will join with Lora Turner of BOEM’s MMP to compare the old and new systems and share lessons learned along the way as they implemented AWS, Esri ArcGIS Enterprise, Branch Versioning and Esri’s AGOL Experience Builder.
Designing a Large Language Model to Support Dredging Activities
Thursday, January 30 – 11 a.m.-Noon – Salon C: Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning
The USACE DQM hosts a large repository of policies, whitepapers, publications and other technical documentation related to dredging activities. NV5’s Winans and Sataloff will join forces again with USACE’s Hall, Keith and Lenoir to discuss how USACE DQM partnered with NV5 to architect a LLM solution, which enhanced accessibility to this critical dredging-related information for USACE staff and industry partners for maintaining navigable waterways. Designed with four key principles – secure architecture within the USACE Azure GovCloud, specialized model selection, advanced document processing for improved searchability and tailored prompt engineering for USACE-specific topics – the LLM solution features a customized user-friendly chat interface that allows plain language queries and provides robust responses alongside source document links. This solution effectively balances information accessibility with data security, streamlining the planning and support of dredging operations for coastal and inland waterways.
To meet with our experts at Coastal GeoTools and learn more about NV5’s offerings, contact Steve Raber at steven.raber@nv5.com.
About NV5
NV5 is a global leader providing geospatial solutions, services, and software to solve mission critical challenges. From data acquisition to analytics to enterprise GIS solutions and software development, NV5 applies geospatial science to deliver end-to-end solutions and insights to mitigate risk, plan for growth, better manage resources, and advance scientific understanding. We leverage the widest array of advanced remote sensing technologies and apply today’s most sophisticated analytic AI frameworks, including proprietary deep learning, computer vision, and predictive analytic models tailored to our clients’ needs. Through off the shelf and fully customized solutions, we empower our clients to enact meaningful change across enterprises, communities, and the world. For more information visit nv5geospatial.com, join us on LinkedIn, or follow us on X @nv5geospatial.com.
