More than 80,000 US Army Corps of Engineers surveys, integrated and updated every week, can be overlaid on your nautical charts to show you the best route in complex areas.
NOTE: An active Master subscription is necessary to access the USACE surveys.

The USACE districts, distributed throughout the US, are responsible for regularly surveying the inland navigation channels system. Especially in areas where the bottom changes frequently due to weather or river estuaries, the USACE conducts depth surveys and publishes them as soon as possible to inform about the status of the navigation channel.

The Aqua Map - USACE surveys service aims to inform captains as soon as possible about the new survey data. The surveys overlaid on the official map allow for a better evaluation of the dangers and proper route planning in risky areas. NOTE: All USACE districts are responsible for uploading their surveys into the eHydro USACE database as soon as possible. However, we have experienced delays in the upload with some districts, up to several weeks, while others upload their new surveys within a few days.

The USACE surveys consist of a set of depth areas displayed with bright colors ranging from dark red (very dangerous, usually below 3 feet) to blue (above 15 feet) and spot soundings.
Below is the color scale (which can be found in the USACE Settings page).

The USACE layer in Aqua Map integrates all USACE surveys from the late 1990s to the present day. This integration ensures that the latest (most recent) survey is always displayed on top.

USACE Settings

From the general Settings page, you can access the USACE Settings page, where you can configure all the drawing parameters.

At the top of this page, you'll find a switch to enable USACE on your charts.

Next, there's a section with options that allow you to adjust how USACE data appears on the charts:

• Display USACE: This option enables the overlay of USACE data on the map.
  Note: if you disable the drawing but keep the USACE functionality on, the data will still be updated by the app. So, when you enable the drawing again, you'll have the most updated data. If you disable the functionality, no updates will be done.
• Select max age: With this option, you can choose the maximum age of surveys to be overlaid on the map. You can select "All" (no filter, all surveys will be drawn), "3yr" (do not display surveys older than 3 years), "1yr" (do not display surveys older than 1 year), or "months" (enter a number of months to be used as a filter).
• Enable fading: This option enables the fading of USACE surveys, making older surveys more transparent. This helps provide a better understanding of the surveys' age just by looking at the map. Remember, that you can still get the exact survey date by tapping on the depth data on the map.