CZMIL as a rapid environmental disaster response tool

The Teledyne Optech CZMIL (Coastal Zone Mapping and Imaging Lidar) is an airborne system primarily designed for topographic and bathymetric mapping. The combination of a scanning lidar, RGB camera system, and optional ITRES Co. hyperspectral instrument, in conjunction with the Optech HydroFusion software suite within a data fusion paradigm, makes CZMIL an integrated lidar-imagery system for the highly automated generation of physical and environmental information products beyond topographic and bathymetric mapping. These products include benthic classification, water column and bottom type characterization, 3D imaging of water column inhomogeneities, detection of submerged hazardous objects, etc. Its system capabilities are the reason why CZMIL has been applied to various environmental surveys aimed at the detection of distributed pollutions (oil spills, industrial leaks) or discrete targets (plastic debris, sunken objects, etc.) in the water column as well as bottom disorders (silt or sandy sediments). Several examples of CZMIL and its predecessor (SHOALS) engaging in environmental disaster surveys are presented and discussed in the paper, including detection of a leak from a sewer pipeline in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; surveying the BP oil spill in Gulf of Mexico; coastal zone change detection and its implications after Hurricanes Sandy and Matthew; and detection of plastic fragments in the Pacific Garbage Patch.