We didn’t set out looking for a new service to add. A potential client asked us a question, and that question is the reason bathymetric surveying is now part of what we offer.
The Question That Started It
In the fall of 2024, a potential client asked if we could do the kind of drone-based stormwater pond survey they’d heard about — a project involving Mohawk College and the City of Hamilton. We hadn’t come across it yet, so we went and found out what they were talking about, starting with Mohawk College’s own writeup of the project.
What Mohawk College and the City of Hamilton Were Testing
The project turned out to be a research partnership between the City of Hamilton’s Water team and Mohawk College’s Unmanned and Remote Sensing Innovation Centre (URSIC). The two had teamed up to test whether drones equipped with echo sounders could survey Hamilton’s stormwater ponds more efficiently and accurately than traditional manual methods.
Hamilton is responsible for maintaining 137 stormwater management facilities, including 70 wet ponds and wetlands, and accurate survey data is what drives decisions on dredging schedules and regulatory compliance. The research showed the drone-based approach held up well, and the project was later shortlisted as a finalist for a national Water Canada Award in the Stormwater category — solid, third-party validation that this wasn’t just a novelty.
That was enough to convince us it was worth a serious look.
Doing Our Homework First
Before spending money on new equipment, we met with SPH Engineering, the company behind the echo sounder integration used in projects like Hamilton’s. We wanted to understand what the equipment could actually do, what it would take to operate, and whether it made sense for the kind of work we do. Once we were confident it did, we bought in — picking up the EchoLogger sonar system that’s since become part of our standard kit.
Training With Mohawk College — and a Costly Lesson
In spring 2025, we trained directly with Mohawk College’s URSIC team on operating the equipment in the field.
That training is also where we learned one of our more expensive lessons. During a return flight, one of our pilots brought the drone in a little too quickly. A mounting clamp holding the sonar in place failed, and the unit dropped into the pond. We ended up hiring a diving crew to retrieve it.
It wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but it told us exactly what needed to change. We redesigned the mounting and clamp hardware so that a fast turn wouldn’t put the equipment at risk again.
Training With SPH Engineering — the Technical Side
We also trained with SPH Engineering, done remotely since the company is based in Lithuania. That training focused on the technical side of the system — understanding the equipment in depth and how to process the data it collects, rather than the flying itself.
Learning to Fly Tethered and Close to the Surface — On Our Own
Flying tethered and close to the water’s surface is a different skill than free flight, and it wasn’t something either training session covered. The margin for error is smaller and the drone behaves differently near the surface, so we worked through that on our own, outside of both the Mohawk and SPH training, until we were confident flying it well and safely.
Where the Service Stands Now
Between the equipment, the many rounds of training, and the hardware fix that came out of a hard lesson, bathymetric surveying went from “something a client asked about” to a service we actually operate. If you’re curious about how the surveys themselves work and how they compare to traditional methods, we’ve written about that in detail in Bathymetric Surveys: Drone vs. Traditional.
If you’re managing a stormwater pond, watercourse, or containment pond and want to know whether a drone-based survey makes sense for your site, book a consultation with us.