Located in the south of France, the city of Hyères has many ports in its agglomeration, five of which are operated by the town hall as part of a Public Service of Commercial Interest (SPIC in French) under the authority of a Board with financial autonomy. A department is entirely dedicated to the management of these ports and has, among its many missions, the responsibility of carrying out bathymetric surveys of the sites, with more or less precision depending on the demands.
The primary objective is to inform users of the actual draughts at the entrances to the different ports. This essential information concerns a part of the vessels which, depending on their dimensions, sometimes do not have the possibility to navigate in the port basins and at the ports’ entrances. These surveys do not need to be very precise, as the port service wishes above all to move away from the ‘paper-based’ method.
The second objective is to monitor the cubatures carried out by a service provider from the town hall of Hyères as part of the dredging operations. These are carried out regularly to ensure access to a maximum number of boats in the areas at the dock. The data required for this verification requires a high degree of accuracy to calculate the difference between the two readings.
To respond to the applications of the port service of the town hall of Hyères, CADDEN provided a BALI kit including a GNSS antenna, an integrated web server and a dual-frequency Echologger 30-200 kHz sounder.
« The BALI system appealed to us, because no one had a background in the field of bathymetry, and it seemed to be the most affordable for non-initiates. The web server, automatic data processing and simplicity of implementation particularly convinced us », declares Mathias Bourgogne, Computer Scientist – Electrician at the Port Department of the Hyères Town Hall.
Before this acquisition, the town hall of Hyères regularly used an external service provider, which entailed significant additional costs for each operation.
Available for the Echologger dual-frequency sounder, automatic configuration is a feature deployed by CADDEN in 2025. From the web server provided in the BALI system kit, automatic configuration is done with one click and within a few moments, the echo sounder is configured without complex settings.
« We have used it a few times as part of bathymetry surveys, and the use is really simple. With real-time monitoring, we can easily perform bathymetry where we need it and the data extraction is super easy. One of my colleagues then transforms the file with QGIS to have the data in plan format and we then communicate them to the clients at the port. », is delighted Mr. Bourgogne.
During bathymetric survey operations, the BALI system pole is installed on metal hull boats thanks to the attachment provided. The installation is then removed once the survey is completed. Eventually, the teams plan to modify the structure of one of their boats to facilitate the implementation of BALI.
Of those present in the territory and managed by the town hall of Hyères, the port of Ayguade is located the most to the north.
« This type of survey aims to monitor the evolution of our ports’ funds in order to anticipate dredging needs. », explains Sébastien Marro, operations manager at the Ports department of the Hyères City Hall.
« In the field of bathymetry for the uninitiated, CADDEN does not really have competition. The other systems are not as ‘plug and play’ », testifies M. Bourgogne.
In addition to the supply of the BALI system, the Hyères City Hall benefited from a day of training conducted by our Technical Support Engineer, Solana Viel. She traveled to the south of France to present the BALI solution and facilitate its implementation with the port service team.
« We had recourse to the training and we are very satisfied with it », concludes M. Bourgogne.
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