Terravek TIDEWATCH
Coastal and inland water, measured continuously.
TIDEWATCH monitors shorelines, bathymetry, sediment movement, water quality and berth occupancy for port authorities, water boards and coastal agencies.
Coastlines move. Channels silt up. Storm surge arrives faster than a survey vessel can be mobilised. TIDEWATCH combines satellite-derived bathymetry, shoreline extraction, in-situ FIELDKIT gauges and harmonic tide models into a continuously updated picture of a water body.
For port authorities the immediate value is dredging: knowing which berths are approaching declared depth before a vessel is turned away. For water boards it is storm-surge forecasting and dyke deformation. The Zeeland Water Board early warning service built on TIDEWATCH won the 2025 Geospatial Impact Award.
TIDEWATCH is the product Terravek is most careful about. Satellite-derived bathymetry is not a hydrographic survey and the product documentation says so in the first paragraph.
Capabilities
Satellite-derived bathymetry
Optical inversion to 20 m depth in clear water, with per-cell uncertainty.
Shoreline change
Sub-pixel waterline extraction with tide-stage normalisation.
Sediment plume tracking
Turbidity and suspended-sediment indices from multispectral sources.
Berth occupancy
Vessel presence and dwell time by berth, from optical and SAR.
Storm-surge alerting
Threshold alerts combining forecast surge, observed gauge data and dyke condition.
FIELDKIT integration
In-situ tide, turbidity and salinity nodes feed the same model.
Editions
| Edition | Description |
|---|---|
| TIDEWATCH Port | Berth occupancy, channel depth trending and dredging prioritisation. |
| TIDEWATCH Coast | Shoreline change, dune and dyke monitoring, storm-surge alerting. |
| TIDEWATCH Inland | Reservoir, lake and river monitoring including water quality indices. |
Specifications
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Bathymetry depth range | 0–20 m (clear water), 0–8 m (turbid) |
| Bathymetry uncertainty | ±0.4 m typical, reported per cell |
| Shoreline accuracy | ±2.5 m at 10 m source resolution |
| Revisit | Daily to weekly depending on constellation and cloud |
| Alert latency | Under 25 minutes from downlink for storm-surge thresholds |
| Tide models | Open harmonic models published at github.com/terravek/tidewatch-tide-models |
Limitations
We state these on the product page rather than in a footnote during procurement. The sales cycle is eleven months and the truth surfaces anyway.
- Satellite-derived bathymetry is not a substitute for an IHO-compliant hydrographic survey and must not be used for navigation.
- Turbid and tannin-stained water reduces achievable depth substantially; the product reports the achieved depth rather than assuming the nominal one.
- Berth occupancy under persistent cloud falls back to SAR, which does not distinguish vessel class as reliably.
Customers using TIDEWATCH
Zeeland Water Board
Storm-surge early warning for 340 km of coastal defence
Read case study →Rijnmond Port Authority
Prioritising €18M of annual dredging on trend, not schedule
Read case study →