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On Monday, we told you how the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center - or 5 C's - headquartered in Belmopan - has acquired a 2 million-US- dollar LiDAR system for use in Belize and other CARICOM nations.

That's short for Light Detection and Ranging, and its cutting-edge technology that even developed nations don't own. It allows experts to make topographic and hydrographic surveys, which basically means that they will be able to precisely map out land masses, and the depths of large bodies of water. The hope is that the 5 C's will be able to provide this service to the CARICOM nations at a fraction of the price it would cost to get it done by other international experts. 

How much savings exactly? Well, at this time, the United Kingdom's Government Hydrographic Office is currently in Belize, and they will be using their own LiDAR equipment to perform surveys of half of Belize's territorial waters over the next 35 to 40 days. Current navigational information on Belize's coastline is outdated, and is about 150 years-old. So, there's an urgency to update it, but it's comes at a cost of 4 million dollars to outsource the job. Today, the Belize Port Authority invited 7News for a peek at the operation before it begins.

We spoke with the experts out of the UK, and Daniel Ortiz has that story:

Funding for this project is being provide under the United Kingdom Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme. The programme is being delivered on behalf of the UK Government by the UKHO, the Centre for Environment, the Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC). 

Jenkins tells us that the international community has a goal to carefully map out all the world's oceans and bodies of water by 2030. With this exercise, Belize will be well ahead of the rest of the region. He adds that this is the second LiDAR survey exercise for 2018. The first happened in February, and the updates to the Belize's navigational charts have already been made.  The results will be handed over in the next two months.