International cooperation in education: the VASSIVIERE Erasmus intensive training program (2011-2013) on hydrography and geomatics

In the framework of the European Union Erasmus Intensive Program which aims at sponsoring intentive courses jointly proposed by european universities, ENSTA Bretagne (France), Ghent University (Belgium) and HCU University (Germany), and the CIDCO (Interdisciplinary Centre for the Development of Ocean Mapping) (Canada), as an associate partner, organised a hydrographic and topographic surveying camp. This project took place in Lake of Vassivière, one of France’s largest artificial lakes exploited by EDF, France’s global energy company. Five teams of students were tasked to achieve the survey instructions given by EDF like in a real professional context. The main objective was to survey this 10 km² lake to focus on points of interest like dam infrastructures, ports, bridges and to open navigation channels for a given level of the lake. A survey boat from the ENSTA Bretagne and land survey equipment from all universities have been mobilised for this purpose. The project received sponsorship from the industry (Boskalis, Netherland) which is interested in the concept of educating students 7at an international level. Both land and bathymetric surveys has been conducted using a large variety of equipments. This paper will analyze the educational benefit of international cooperation in the field of hydrographic and land survey training.