An Orlando firm targeting environmental cleanup of lakes and vital waterways with its technology staged a successful demo on Friday.
CCIWADR showcased its innovative system on Lake Cane, a popular 80-acre lake in Orlando, just south of Universal Studios. The company operates in Kissimmee out of the UCF Business Incubation Program.
Their trial project aims to pinpoint crucial, often-clogged natural water seeps, which pose a significant challenge for urban lake health. Seeps are places where underground water slowly leaks to the surface.
“The natural flow of water in Florida is through seeps connecting our aquifer to the lakes, but those are often clogged,” said Jay Madigan, co-founder of the Lake Cane Restoration Society, in a press release. “The technology from CCIWADR has been critical in finding those seeps so we can start the process of unclogging them and improving the water of the lake we love to swim in.”
The CCIWADR system, developed with support from the incubator, utilizes a so-called bathymetric drone – that is, a drone equipped with sonar to map underwater depths – for autonomous 3D data collection and digital twin technology to map subsurface issues. This innovative system provides water managers with previously unmeasurable data, offering new hope for improving water quality in Florida’s thousands of lakes.