Bathymetric survey report app for hydrographic crews
A port or dredging contractor reading a bathymetry report wants depths they can act on — and the evidence that those depths are corrected for tide, sound velocity and vessel motion. Most of that evidence lives in a deck log written in pencil between survey lines. SurveyThanks puts the run log, the sound velocity casts and the tide source on the tablet in the wheelhouse, and renders the report from it.
Built for ports running teams of roughly 3–50 inspectors.
Sample Bathymetry report
An illustrative excerpt. The site, readings and findings are fictional; the layout is yours to set.
Bathymetry report
Section 3 — Survey run log and corrections
- Area
- Fictional Harbour, Berth 2 approach
- Survey date
- 3 June 2026
- Vertical datum
- Chart datum (LAT) via the harbour tide gauge
| Run / check | Observation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Sound velocity cast 1 (07:40) | Applied to lines 1–14 | Status: Pass |
| Sound velocity cast 2 (11:15) | Applied to lines 15–28 | Status: Pass |
| Cross-line comparison | Mean difference 0.04 m against main lines | Status: Pass |
| Line 22 | Rerun — data gap behind moored vessel | Status: Rerun |
| Shoal near beacon B4 | Least depth 9.6 m against 10.5 m declared depth | Status: Shoal |
Fields captured on site
Your firm builds the form in-app, so these are a starting point rather than a fixed schema. Every field is captured on the device, with or without signal, and lands in the bathymetry report where your template puts it.
Vessel and system
- Vessel
- Echo sounder (single / multibeam)
- Positioning system
- Calibration or patch test date
Per run line
- Line number
- Start and end time
- Sound velocity cast applied
- Rerun required (yes / no)
- Notes
Corrections and findings
- Tide source
- Cross-line check result
- Shoals and obstructions with photo
How the bathymetry report gets built
Capture it once, offline
Your firm builds the bathymetric survey run form in-app — 25 field types, nesting repeatable groups, compound AND/OR visibility rules, reusable modules and calculated fields. Field capture works with no signal: jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio all queue in an idempotent outbox that only clears once the server confirms receipt.
Link it to your marks, stations and monitoring points
Enter marks, stations and monitoring points once, as a register. Every one of your observations, rounds and movement readings then points at a stored row rather than a name somebody typed — and the links survive a disconnected device.
Render your own template
The bathymetry report renders into the Word template you already use — your letterhead, your section order, your clause library — with conditionals, loops over repeats, composable sub-templates and photo grids.
Reviewed before it leaves
You write the review framework: a checklist of what a bathymetry report must contain, plus the prose standards you would mark a junior against. Link it to a report template and it runs every time that template renders. Each finding comes back graded info, minor or major, quoting the sentence at fault, and a person accepts or dismisses every one.
Because the structured submission behind the report is held too, the review is a comparison rather than a proofread: The movement summary reports 4 mm at PM3; the round’s readings put it at 11 mm.
Checks a surveying framework usually carries
- Control, datum and epoch are stated for every deliverable
- Quoted tolerances match the project specification being reported against
- Every mark named in the text exists in the register
- Assumptions and sources of error are recorded rather than assumed
Questions
- Does the report state the survey order our client specified?
- Yes, if you capture it. Many port and dredging specifications name an IHO S-44 order; it is a field on the job, and the Word template prints it with the achieved results.
- Can a shoal be flagged separately from the main sounding results?
- Yes. Findings are their own repeatable group, so a shoal or obstruction can be reported up front while the full results follow in the body of the report.
- Does SurveyThanks process the soundings?
- No. Processing and charting stay in your hydrographic software. SurveyThanks holds the run log, corrections and findings that the report has to state alongside the depths.
What this is not
Worth knowing before you book a demo, so neither of us wastes the half hour.
- Not field-service dispatch. No timesheets, no parts, no inventory. Scheduling exists to get an inspector to a site.
- No signature capture. If your deliverable has to carry a signed sign-off on the artefact itself, this is not the tool yet.
- Field capture is what works offline — jobs, forms, photos, notes and audio. Reports, chat, scheduling and the inbox need a connection.
- No client portal. Reports go out as a file or a password-protected link.
Other surveying work we cover
- Volumetric drone surveysVolume report
- Aerial mapping missionsMapping deliverable report
- As-built verification surveysAs-built report
- Boundary survey field notesSurvey plan evidence
- Construction set-out recordsSet-out verification report
- Contour and detail surveysDetail survey report
- Deformation monitoring roundsMovement monitoring report
- GPR survey recordsGPR survey report
Other disciplines
Rebuild your bathymetry report in SurveyThanks
Bring the Word template you already send clients. If you are coming off another field-forms tool, a filled report can be uploaded, read field by field, and re-rendered into your template.