Ahead of GEO Business 2025, RIEGL was invited to demonstrate the capabilities of its terrestrial laser scanning technology in a real-world setting. Operating from a survey vessel on the River Thames in London, the team conducted a live demonstration while also capturing a comprehensive dataset for analysis and performance evaluation – providing the foundation for the study presented in the article.

Surveying the River Thames from a Moving Vessel

The project covered a 12 km section of the River Thames between Tower Bridge and Lambeth Bridge, highlights the system’s ability to acquire dense, survey-grade point cloud data under challenging conditions, including continuous vessel motion, heavy river traffic, and intermittent GNSS availability. Despite these factors – including wave-induced movement affecting roll, pitch, yaw, and heave – the survey was completed efficiently, demonstrating the robustness of the RIEGL VZ-600i’s integrated IMU/GNSS and processing capabilities in kinematic mode.

Flexible Data Acquisition for Dynamic Environments

A key aspect of the workflow, as outlined by RIEGL experts Dave Foster (Managing Director, RIEGL UK) and Bernhard Groiss (Application Engineer, RIEGL Laser Measurement Systems), is the flexibility of data acquisition strategies. The use of radar scanning mode supports stable trajectory estimation under dynamic conditions, while line scanning offers the potential for even higher data density in future deployments. Combined with high-precision control points, this approach enables external validation and further enhances overall accuracy.

Building on earlier work presented in the article RIEGL VZ-600i: Breaking New Ground in Waterway Monitoring – Vienna Danube Canal and the River Thames, this project reinforces the system’s ability to capture complex bridge structures and other difficult-to-access features with exceptional completeness. By extending terrestrial laser scanning into continuous, vessel-based workflows, RIEGL is enabling efficient, precise mapping of environments that would otherwise be challenging or unsafe to survey.

The results underline how the RIEGL VZ-600i delivers the speed, flexibility, and accuracy required for modern waterway mapping applications. From infrastructure inspection and asset documentation to environmental monitoring and digital twin generation, kinematic terrestrial laser scanning enables efficient data acquisition in environments where static surveying approaches reach their limits.

Explore the full article on GIM International to learn more about the workflow, the technical setup, and key findings from this River Thames survey: 
Kinematic terrestrial laser scanning of the River Thames | GIM International