| Title | An indirect approach to classify backscatter data for soft bottom habitat mapping |
| Download | Download (whole publication) |
| |
| Licence | Please note the adoption of the Open Government Licence - Canada
supersedes any previous licences. |
| Author | Pazzini, A; Proietti, R; Agnesi, S; Annunziatellis, A; Nicoletti, L |
| Source | Program and abstracts: 2017 GeoHab Conference, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada; by Todd, B J ; Brown, C J; Lacharité, M; Gazzola, V; McCormack, E; Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 8295, 2017 p. 92, https://doi.org/10.4095/305909  Open Access |
| Links | GeoHab 2017
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| Year | 2017 |
| Publisher | Natural Resources Canada |
| Meeting | 2017 GeoHab: Marine Geological and Biological Habitat Mapping; Dartmouth, NS; CA; May 1-4, 2017 |
| Document | open file |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | on-line; digital |
| Related | This publication is contained in Program and abstracts: 2017
GeoHab Conference, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| File format | pdf |
| Subjects | marine geology; surficial geology/geomorphology; environmental geology; geophysics; mapping techniques; oceanography; marine environments; coastal studies; conservation; marine organisms; marine
ecology; resource management; biological communities; environmental studies; ecosystems; geophysical interpretations; acoustic surveys, marine; sonar surveys; side-scan sonar; marine sediments; Biology; Methodology |
| Program | Offshore Geoscience |
| Released | 2017 09 26 |
| Abstract | The availability of wide area habitat maps is a key aspect for several marine assessment scenarios. The development of innovative, quick and low cost methods to produce such maps is therefore crucial to
overcome the actual knowledge gap. Multibeam echosounder (MBES) backscatter data acquisition is largely used to collect geophysical data which are then post processed versus in situ data (sediment and/or biological samples) to classify the acoustic
response (hereafter direct method). However, many parameters as roughness, porosity, presence of gas seeps, etc. strongly affect the results. In fact, a number of recent works highlight that the availability of backscatter and sediment data is not
sufficient to evaluate the relationship between acoustic response and seabed substratum (De Falco et al., 2010; Ferrini and Flood, 2006; Goff et al., 2000; Sutherland et al., 2007). This is particularly true in big areas, which are often
characterized by wide depth range and heterogeneous substrata and where in situ data can be insufficient. In order to exceed these critical aspects in backscatter data elaboration, a new procedure (indirect method) is presented in this work. The
proposed classification method can be synthetized as follows: (1) MBES backscatter data cleaning and homogenization, (2) identification of "disturbed" areas (i.e. trawled areas, dredging areas, etc.), (3) MBES backscatter data clustering with
identification of a high number of acoustic facies (a multiple of the sediment classes recorded by in situ samples), (4) association of different acoustic facies to a specific sampled sediment class.
This procedure was tested in a study area
located in the North Latium coast in the central Tyrrhenian Sea. This area extends 30 square kilometres with a depth range between 40 and 100 metres, mainly characterized by soft bottom.
The application of the proposed method classifies six
groups of acoustic facies allowing adequate control of the difference in backscatter response (i.e. due to attenuation with depth). Furthermore, this method provides encouraging results also in areas with a very low number of in situ samples.
The
comparison between direct and indirect methods confirms the usefulness of this approach for the identification of soft bottom habitats in wide areas. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
The sixteenth annual GeoHab Conference was held this year (2017) at the Waterfront Campus of the Nova Scotia Community College in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia,
Canada. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 305909 |
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