Beneath the surface of every ocean, river, lake, and harbor lies a story that hydrographic surveyors help uncover. To celebrate World Hydrography Day, we asked some of our surveyors across the U.S., UK, and Australia to share their insights. From emerging technologies and evolving industry challenges to the often quiet, but vital impacts hydrography has on daily life, they reveal why understanding the world beneath the water’s surface has never been more important.
Why is hydrography important to the average person, even if they don’t realize it?
Josh: “The Earth’s surface is about 71% water and of that, only a fraction has actually been mapped. There is still so much of our own planet that we have never explored. Hydrography helps us to not only develop, expand, and improve our lives, but it gives us a better understanding of the natural world we are all a part of.”
Izzy: “The average person may not realize, but hydrography plays a key role in the global economy. Every ship carrying products around the world relies on nautical charts and updated bathymetry in ports and harbors for safe navigation!”
Ross: “Water is life-sustaining for us. We live and breathe close to water, to creeks, to rivers, to lakes, and the sea. There are obvious reciprocal impacts, and it is imperative that we understand water and waterways — hydrography is a key measure of that understanding.”
Gareth: “Our lifestyles are built around hydrography, from reliable internet connections to global shipping and even receiving electricity to the UK via undersea cables from Norway and France.”
How do you see hydrography evolving as demands on our ports and waterways increase?
Josh: “As demands increase, the need for data also increases. More data, not only more frequently but cleaner and faster whilst remaining accurate and precise.”
Izzy: “As demands on our ports and waterways increase, the size and frequency of hydrographic surveys will also increase. Hydrographic survey techniques will be improved to survey faster and more regularly, integrating multiple types of sensors and techniques.”
Ryan: “The S-100 standards are going to help with this evolution, helping take the high-resolution data we see and collect and transform it into a directly use able format for harbor pilots and other end users on their chart plotters to be able to have the most accurate, high resolution and up to date survey data.”
Gareth: “Increased activity in our ports and waterways will require more dynamic and frequent monitoring, along with Digital Twins and predictive modelling.”
What’s one new technology that’s transforming hydrographic surveying that you’re excited about, and how is it changing the way you do your job or surveys are conducted?
Josh: “Unmanned systems are having a major and ever-expanding impact on hydrography. Removing the human from the vessel has not removed their job; it has just made it far more comfortable. The technology advancements in both underwater and airborne systems is also leading to new methods of capture and allowing the collection of data at qualities not previously imagined.”
Izzy: “Unmanned survey systems are transforming hydrographic survey operations, especially offshore. It’s been exciting to be a part of this technology advancement — as a force multiplier to manned vessels or having a project collected entirely by remotely operated platforms. We’re seeing unmanned systems with endurance times surpassing some of our own vessels, and able to handle higher sea state conditions that could be unsafe for surveyors.”
Ross: “The level of system integration in recent years has been tremendous. Systems are all-in-one set ups that are plug and play. No more battling with com port selections and baud rates, the systems work seamlessly and will even happily also take an MLS at the same time.”
Ryan: “This has to be our offshore remotely operated surface vehicles; they have completely changed how we approach and collect day to day acquisition data on our large-scale offshore projects.”
Gareth: “Implementing drone boats to survey large areas more efficiently and reducing the hazards to personnel and equipment when manually surveying on boats.”
If there is ONE thing you wish more people understood about our oceans, rivers, and lakes, what would it be?
Izzy: “That they are constantly changing! There are numerous factors that affect our waters, both natural influences and man-made/artificial influences.”
Ross: “It is sometimes hard to convey just how much waterways are a sustaining ecological environment just the same as the land is. The only difference is that it is much less visible to us. And what we as hydrographers do is make that environment visible to people.”
Ryan: “How dynamic the bottom is. Its constantly changing sand waves moving around, dredge areas filling in, scour happing around structure. It’s an incredibly dynamic environment and needs to be constantly monitored. Your knowledge is only as good as your most recent data set.”
Gareth: “How essential it is for our waterways to be kept as clean and clear from pollution and debris as possible.”
What’s the coolest or most interesting thing you’ve discovered under the waves?
Josh: “Paradise Dam (QLD, Aus) we were able to see the construction roads, temporary diversion channel, even the old earth weir. All of which was flooded in 30-40m of water once the dam was constructed.”
Izzy: “A plane wreck!”
Ross: “We may or may have not once been called to a site to identify exactly where a Caterpiller D6 Dozer ended up at the bottom of a dredge pit. Definitely interesting to see a shape form in the data that matched a cab, blade, and track.”
Ryan: “Mapped a few shipwrecks and planes in Micronesia atolls when I was working for NAVO. As part of a larger charting project to help some technical divers locate lost wreck sites.”
Gareth: “Scuba dived on the Barrier Reef. The range of colours of the fish and coral were incredible.”
Interested in joining our team? View our open positions here.
Data centers have become one of the most debated forms of infrastructure development in North America. To some communities, they represent unchecked growth: massive buildings, heavy power demand, water concerns, environmental impact, and relatively few permanent jobs. To others, they are the essential engines of the modern economy, quietly powering everything from health care and emergency services to manufacturing, education, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.
There is some truth in both perspectives. But the debate is too often framed as a binary choice: Should we approve the building of data centers in our communities or should we reject them outright? But that is the wrong question. The real issue is not whether data centers should be built, but how they can be built so they have a positive impact on the community.
When planned and governed thoughtfully, data centers can function much like modern utility infrastructure: capital-intensive, low impact on daily life, fiscally transformative, and compatible with local priorities. When approvals are rushed, poorly conditioned, or disconnected from community expectations, they can just as easily generate frustration and backlash. The difference lies in policy and design.
Data Centers as Critical Infrastructure
The rapid expansion of cloud computing, digital services, and AI has elevated data centers from a niche real estate class to critical infrastructure. Their growth is not speculative. It is structural. These facilities now underpin health records, financial systems, logistics networks, industrial automation, education platforms, public safety systems, and more.
Seen through this lens, data centers resemble other forms of utility infrastructure. They are designed for reliability and scale, not visibility or foot traffic. Their value lies less in daily employment counts and more in systemic support for the modern economy.
That framing does not excuse poor siting or weak oversight. It does, however, suggest that communities should evaluate data centers using infrastructure criteria, including long-term fiscal impact, resource stewardship, and compatibility with local planning goals, rather than comparing them to uses such as retail or manufacturing.
The Economic Reality: High Value, Low Daily Burden
One of the most common criticisms of data centers is that they do not create enough permanent jobs once construction is complete. That observation is fair, but incomplete.
Data center projects often involve hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars in upfront investment. Construction generates substantial demand for site preparation, civil work, utility coordination, electrical systems, structural materials, concrete, steel, fiber, cooling equipment, and security infrastructure. For many rural and suburban communities, that phase alone can create a meaningful economic lift for regional contractors, suppliers, and skilled trades over multiple years.
More importantly, once operational, data centers often represent exceptionally high assessed value relative to their land footprint. In many jurisdictions, that tax base can materially support schools, fire protection, libraries, roads, and other public services without creating sustained traffic, significant housing pressure, or major day-to-day service demand.
Unlike stadiums or entertainment complexes, data centers deliver fiscal benefits quietly. Their daily operational footprint is small, but their contribution to local budgets can be transformational, provided tax incentives are structured carefully and do not erode long-term value.
Jobs: Fewer, But Higher Skill and Negotiable
It is true that data centers generally do not generate the same number of permanent jobs as factories or distribution hubs. But the jobs they do create are typically technically challenging, stable, and well-paid, particularly in nonurban markets.
Facility operations, systems maintenance, controls, networking, electrical support, and security roles frequently exceed local median wages and do not always require a traditional four-year degree. With the right approach, data centers can become entry points into skilled technical careers.
Crucially, communities are not passive participants in this outcome. Local governments can require local hiring goals, apprenticeship programs, and partnerships with community colleges or trade schools as conditions of approval. When workforce provisions are negotiated upfront, data centers can contribute to long-term skills development rather than remaining isolated facilities.
Power Demand and the Grid: From Risk to Opportunity
Energy use is the most visible and politically sensitive issue surrounding data center growth. Large facilities undeniably increase electricity demand, and unmanaged growth can strain local grids. But higher demand does not automatically translate into higher residential power bills. That outcome depends on policy and design choices.
Large data center operators are often willing, and financially able, to fund substation upgrades, transmission improvements, and interconnection costs. Many also procure long-term clean energy from solar and wind sources through power purchase agreements, effectively underwriting new generation rather than drawing solely on existing supply.
When communities and regulators require projects to pay their marginal infrastructure costs and commit to clean energy additionality, data centers can help accelerate grid modernization instead of burdening it. Energy impacts, in other words, are a design and governance issue, not an inevitability.
Water Use: An Issue That Has Evolved
Water consumption has become one of the most emotionally charged objections to data center development, particularly in agricultural or drought-prone regions. Some older cooling designs do use significant volumes of water, and communities are right to scrutinize this closely.
What is often overlooked is how rapidly cooling technology is changing. Many modern data centers now rely on closed-loop or non-evaporative cooling systems that consume little to no potable water for cooling. In these designs, water use is largely limited to ordinary domestic needs.
Local governments retain the authority to require these approaches. Permits can mandate no potable water for cooling, require reclaimed or nonpotable sources, impose water-use caps, and include drought-response triggers. When these conditions are written into approvals, water risk becomes a managed variable rather than an open-ended concern.
Land Use, Traffic, and Community Character
Compared with warehouses, distribution centers, and manufacturing plants, data centers provide relatively little disruption to neighbors once construction ends. They typically generate minimal daily traffic, limited deliveries, and no customer visitation.
Concerns about appearance and noise are legitimate, but solvable. Architectural standards, setbacks, landscaping, lighting controls, and enforceable property-line noise limits are well-established planning tools. Noise mitigation specifically is a mature engineering discipline when addressed during design rather than after complaints arise.
The lesson is straightforward: Communities that specify expectations upfront tend to avoid conflict later.
The Case for Conditional Approval
The strongest defense of data center development is not blind enthusiasm, but conditional negotiation grounded in governance.
Communities that successfully host data centers typically insist on:
- Clear community benefits agreements
- Transparent reporting on energy, water, and emissions
- Project-funded grid and infrastructure upgrades
- Modern cooling and noise-control standards
- Local workforce and training commitments
These conditions shift the conversation from “trust us” to “here are the enforceable terms.” That shift often determines whether a project faces opposition or earns acceptance.
Asking the Right Question
Data centers do not belong everywhere, and they should not be approved automatically; but neither should they be dismissed as inherently negative or extractive.
The better question for communities is this: Can this project strengthen our tax base, modernize our infrastructure, protect our resources, and create pathways for residents?
In many cases, the answer is yes, if leaders use the tools already available in zoning, permitting, and development agreements. When they do, data centers can become not symbols of unwanted growth, but examples of how modern infrastructure and local stewardship can coexist.
To celebrate World Engineering Day, we asked Woolpert engineers to share their insights with the next generation of engineering pros. In this Q&A, our team offers their best advice for students and emerging professionals, highlighting the skills, tools, and technologies shaping the future of the industry.
What is one piece of advice you’d give to students or young engineering professionals?
“Perseverance, endurance, and self-motivation are more important than perfection.”
– Melissa Miller, Engineering Project Manager
“You can go a long way with a bad assumption. Ask clarifying questions!”
– James Overton, GISP, Geospatial Project Manager
“Learn to communicate, not just calculate. Great engineers connect technical solutions to real community needs.”
– Mark Tomczyk, PE, LEED GA, Engineering Program Director
“Make friends with your professors – they may become a client one day.”
– Amanda Douglas, PE, Engineering Project Manager
“Master your craft but learn the business behind the project. Technical skills get you hired; client trust and value build your career.”
– Kevin Scherr, Senior Engineering Project Manager
“Diversify your skills, ask questions, and always try to solve the problem before you ask for help.”
– Matt Gilbreath, PE, Senior Engineering Project Manager
“Don’t limit yourself to “traditional” engineering. Take business and psychology courses. Get involved in the business and operation side as well.”
– Jay Boltz, PE, National Transportation Discipline Leader
“Take extra time outside of work each week to improve your skills by studying codes, design guides, etc. to make yourself invaluable to your firm.”
– Michael Avellano, PE, SE, PMP, Engineering Program Director
“If you wish to improve at school or work, don’t be afraid to look foolish. Ask questions!”
– Dustin Vousden, PE, SI, CPESC, Senior Engineering Project Manager
“Don’t give up! Seeing your designs come to life is immensely rewarding and worth it.”
– Danielle Tabb, PE, Engineering Project Manager
“Get your PE as soon as possible, regardless of your engineering discipline. Civil engineers should take at least one survey class.”
– James Geisbush, Ph.D., PE, BC.PLW, F. ASCE, Large Diameter Pipeline Technical Lead
What emerging skills or tools would you encourage engineering students to learn early?
“Learn enough software coding/modeling to understand how your computer-based tools work and when they are giving you a not-quite-correct answer.”
– Danielle Meggyesy, MS, PE, Engineering Project Manager
“Good old fashioned interpersonal communication.”
– Tom Hart, PE, Senior Engineering Project Manager
“Taking a basic GIS class in college will open doors to familiarizing yourself with many public-facing tools and utilizing data in projects.”
– David DiCesare, PE, Senior Engineering Project Manager
“Soft skills, because that is often what isn’t taught in school.”
– Tyson James, PE, CFM, IM Program Director
“Stay abreast of technology, but communication skills (oral and written) will ALWAYS be important.”
– Tom Creasey, Ph.D., PE, Engineering Program Director
“AI, but learn how to accurately and efficiently prompt it, and certainly learn how to interpret its answers.”
– James Geisbush, Ph.D., PE, BC.PLW, F. ASCE, Large Diameter Pipeline Technical Lead
“CAD, CAD, CAD! Any and all programs you can get access to.”
– Dale Ashley, Engineering Designer
“Go to a construction site to observe how modeling/plans are applied in the real world and what changes. Also, any software related to your field.”
– Nathan Wilson, PE, PMP, CFM, ENV SP, Engineering Team Leader
“CAD. It will be used in some shape or form in civil engineering. You will be more efficient and valuable to your team if you know general tools.”
– Michelle Huelsman, Engineer in Training
“AI tools.”
– Uttam Karmaker, PE, ENV SP, Senior Engineering Project Manager
“For site civil, learn how site grading affects stormwater management. It’s a skill that saves time, money, effort, and makes for better designed sites.”
– Wendy Carr, Engineering Designer
“GIS, data analytics, hydraulic modeling, and climate resilience planning. Future projects will demand system-level thinking.”
– Mark Tomczyk, PE, LEED GA, Engineering Program Director
“Learn AI tools, data visualization, and financial literacy early. Engineers who understand business and communicate well will typically advance the fastest.”
– Kevin Scherr, Senior Engineering Project Manager
“The latest MiDAS or STAAD version, spreadsheet applications, and how to apply AI to your day-to-day.”
– Michael Avellano, PE, SE, PMP, Engineering Program Director
Favorite tech or tool you get to use in your role?
“Airport radio.”
– Tom Hart, PE | Senior Engineering Project Manager
“ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro.”
– David DiCesare, PE | Senior Engineering Project Manager
“Python.”
– Tyson James, PE, CFM | IM Program Director
“3D modeling technology.”
– Dustin Vousden, PE, SI, CPESC | Senior Engineering Project Manager
“Computer traffic simulation.”
– Tom Creasey, Ph.D., P.E. | Engineering Program Director
“Bentley OpenRoads Designer and AutoCAD Civil 3D.”
– Dale Ashley, Engineering Designer
“Bluebeam Revu. It makes plan review collaborative, efficient, and far more precise than traditional redlines.”
– Kevin Scherr, Senior Engineering Project Manager