Nautical Data to GIS: Bermuda
Coastal digitization and nearshore mapping for subsea cable landing zone development.
Project 3: Coastal Digitization
Nearshore Geospatial Analysis – Real-World Scenario Simulation
This project focuses on digitizing the coastline near the Bermuda landing site to support realistic subsea cable planning. In real projects, accurately mapping the shoreline is one of the first steps in deciding where the cable will come ashore and how it connects to the planned route. By turning the coastline into usable GIS data, this project lays the foundation for landing site selection, route refinement, and environmental review—just like in real-world infrastructure planning.
📍 Tools used: ArcGIS Pro, QGIS, Python (Geopandas, Fiona), Matplotlib
Methodology & Workflow
1. Raster Reference and Georeferencing
A screenshot from C-MAP (https://www.c-map.com/chartexplorer/) was used as a visual reference for mapping the nearshore area around St. George's, Bermuda. The image included bathymetric contours, anchorage symbols, caution areas, and navigational buoys, which provided valuable context for the landing site environment. The screenshot was georeferenced using the existing shoreline, aligning the image spatially with the project’s GIS environment. This allowed subsequent vector digitization of key navigational and hazard features.
2. Feature Digitization
Instead of digitizing the shoreline itself, key navigational and operational constraint features were manually traced from the georeferenced image. This included:
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A major shipping lane intersecting the cable route at KP0002
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A caution area encompassing the shipping corridor
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Multiple buoys and anchorage points
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An anchorage area located approximately 1.2 km west of KP0002.
These features were stored as vector layers to support spatial conflict analysis with the proposed cable route.
3. Hazard & Constraint Layer Integration
The digitized hazard features were overlaid on the preliminary cable route and KP points to evaluate nearshore operational constraints. This visualization makes potential navigation conflicts—such as shipping lane crossings—clear during the early stages of route planning.
4. Nearshore Crossing Assessment
At approximately KP0002, the proposed route intersects the designated caution area, which contains a major shipping lane. Proximity to the anchorage area and navigational aids indicates that detailed marine survey and coordination with port authorities would be required in a real-world scenario to mitigate risks.
5. Cartographic and Data Organization
All layers—including the georeferenced image, shipping lane, caution area, buoys, anchorage point, and anchorage area—were organized into a structured GIS project directory with separate folders for data, outputs, and maps. This organization supports reproducibility, clean data management, and efficient integration into later phases of the corridor analysis.