General Facts about the Lidar Technique

Laser Induced and Ranging (LIDAR) is an airborne mapping technique which uses a laser to measure the distance between the aircraft and the ground. Since the 1970s the application of airborne LIDAR for topographic and bathymetric mapping has matured at a rapid pace, with the first commercial Lidar systems appearing in 1993. Much of this growth has directly followed advances in high speed digital and analogue electronics along with increases of several orders of magnitude in computer memory, storage capacity and processing speed.

There are two main types of systems operating with different light frequencies: the first is the topographic Lidar with only one near-infrared (IR) wavelength, between 1047 and 1540 nm according to manufacturers, the other one is the ALB (Airborne Lidar Bathymetry) consisting basically of two rays at different wavelengths: blue-green (532 nm) and near-infrared. Usually ALB systems are also geared to survey in dual modes, i.e. topographic and hydrographic.

Lidar bathymetric technology utilises the reflective and transmissive properties of water and the sea floor to enable measurement of water depth. When a light beam hits a column of water, part of the energy is reflected off the surface and the rest, unless absorbed by particles in the water, is transmitted through the column. As the light travels through the water column and reflects off the seafloor, scattering, absorption, and refraction all combine to limit the strength of the bottom return, and therefore the system's maximum extinction depth. This depth is a function of water clarity, and is generally about 2 to 3 times the Secchi depth (Smith, 2000). As shown in Figure, for turbid water, the extinction coefficient is smallest in the green part of the spectrum close to 0.6 nm. The presence of organic matter in the water tends to displace light penetration towards higher wavelengths.

Sea Bottom Topography with Navigation Radar

In radar images, changes in sea surface roughness owing to bottom topography are mainly affected by wave-current interactions. The hydro-meteo conditions under which bottom topography can be observed are both as high as possible surface current as a wind speed of between 2 and 4 Bft. That navigation radars are capable to monitor sea bottom topography is quit new An example is given in Figure. In contrast with space-borne radars these systems are able to monitor a particular area around the clock. This ability makes navigation radar attractive for operational use of sea bottom topography mapping. Further investigations are needed to demonstrate the performance

Sea bottom topography in de Wadden Sea the North of the Netherlands. The wind was approximately 10m/sec. Water depth was between 5 and 20 m and total observation/ processing time was 2 minutes. The area is about 4 by 2km.

Side Scan Sonar

Sidescan sonar is based on the same acoustic principles as the single beam echo sounder and the multibeam echo sounder. All three have transducers which comprise: a transmitter which emits a sound pulse into the water column down to the sea bed a receiver which picks up the reflected sound from the sea bed as a vibration which is converted into a digital or analogue signal and recorded on a survey vessel

Sidescan sonars are characterised by a beam which is narrow in the horizontal plane and wide in the vertical plane. This creates a narrow acoustic sweep across the sea bed at right angles to the track of the towfish. The range of the sweep is governed by the velocity of sound in water. The longer the range set by the operator the longer it takes for a sound pulse to travel out and back to the towfish. Because a sidescan has two transducers, the sweep coverage of each towfish is double the range i.e. a typical sidescan set to survey at a range of 150 m will produce a sweep of 300 m across its track.

The sound received and recorded by a sidescan sonar system is a function of two primary mechanisms which enable sound to return from the sea bed. These are: 1. Reflection. Direct returns of sound bouncing back off features on the sea bed such as rock outcrops, sand waves and wrecks. 2. Backscatter. This is a diffuse and weaker process based on the interaction of sound energy with the ambient texture and character of the sea bed. The intensity of the backscattered sound is a function of bottom roughness and angle of incidence.

Multibeam Echo Sounders Multibeam echo sounders (MBES) determine depth by accurately measuring the angles of emission, reception and two-way travel time for a pulse of sound energy from the emitting instrument (transducer) to the seabed and back. MBES systems can achieve full bottom coverage with beam swath widths of 4 to 7 times the depth of water being surveyed (Figure 81). They are sometimes called beamformers or true multibeam systems, opposed to interferometric swath systems.

Following data collection, processing is undertaken. This includes offset correction, attitude correction, tidal offset and cleaning of erroneous echoes present as outliers in the data. The soundings can then be built into a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) for 3D viewing of the sea floor, creation of sun-illuminated imagery and contour maps.

MBES can also measure the amount of acoustic backscatter from the seabed for each acoustic beam. Backscatter information is perfectly co-located with the seabed bathymetry information and makes MBES unique in the ability to simultaneously collect bathymetry and backscatter information in a single survey. Only part of the acoustic signal emitted will be reflected back to the receiver from the sea floor, part may be transmitted into the sediment and part scattered in a different direction by the seafloor. The way the seafloor interferes with the acoustic signal and the returned echo can be used to characterise the seafloor material. The transmission and scattering will depend on the frequency of the MBES, the angle of incidence and the type of sediment its density and porosity (Figure 82).

-Spatial scale: Shallow versus deep water survey systems Acoustic energy emitted from multibeam echo sounder transducers will undergo spreading and absorption as it propagates through the water column. This propagation loss will limit the range the acoustic energy may penetrate the water column with high frequency energy being absorbed at a higher rate than low frequencies and limiting their use to shallow waters. Lower frequencies have longer wavelengths and will be able to penetrate to deeper seafloor depths. On this basis MBES systems may be divided into three major categories depending on their operating frequencies, Deepwater, Shallow and High-resolution systems (Table 81).

Sound velocity corrections The speed at which sound travels through the water column (sound velocity profile) must be known to convert the travel times of acoustic waves into distances. Sound velocity commonly ranges from 1400 to 1570 ms-1 (Figure 88) approximately four times the speed of sound through air. This is a function of water density, which is affected by water temperature, salinity and pressure and therefore varies with the depth. This parameter has a significant effect upon the calculation of the distance between the seabed and the transducer, and positioning of the footprint of each beam

Survey Planning The time requirements for surveying an area are primarily dictated by the water depths in question, with shallower areas taking longer to survey owing to smaller footprint size (Figure 8 11). For survey planning one must first gather as much available information as possible on the bathymetry, from admiralty charts, previous surveys, GEBCO (General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans) (BUUHHHHHH) etc.

Data cleaning / checking Data cleaning and checking will apply to vessel navigation and attitude data, as well as the depth soundings. The process begins with a visual inspection of vessel navigation and attitude data to identify and remove any invalid measurements by the navigation or MRU instruments.
The suppression of erroneous depths caused by fish, noise or air in the water column can be performed manually or automatically through various filters. Erroneous soundings are also called outliers or spikes. Manual cleaning can be performed through several interfaces depending on the software manufacturer. The most common incorporate visualisation of the data ping-by-ping on a line-by-line basis (also called a waterfall display) or on a subset of data in a 2D or 3D view. These interfaces are very useful for checking the quality of the data and can reveal problems in the acquisition settings such as neighbouring lines not matching and abnormal swath shape.

To map subtidal facies Single beam Acoustic Ground Discrimination Systems (AGDS)

What can I do with these data? Resource inventory Complement swath acoustic techniques What information lies there? Measures roughness and hardness of the seabed as well as depth Can be interpreted (with ground truthing) as habitats Good at measuring small acoustic differences between sediment types What are the limitations? Coverage is not complete and interpolation can introduce errors Resolution is coarse Measurements are specific to each instrument and every survey should be interpreted independantly

Side Scan Sonar

Acoustic sea bed images as single line records or mosaics. Resolution and coverage frequency depth dependent: ~0.2 - >1.0 m. Commonly not georeferenced therefore lower resolution for horizontal position: >10 m.

What can I do with these data? Create mosaic maps of sediment facies, bedforms and rock. Detect temporal change in bedforms Guide ground truth sampling What information lies there? Extent and nature of substrates Crest and slope orientation of bedforms Indicators of seabed topography Indicators of human impacts e.g. trawl scars What are the limitations? Towed fish system; positional accuracy improved by tracking towfish position Differences between across-track and alongtrack resolution Generally not practical in water depths less than 5-10 metres

Sub Bottom Acoustic Profiling

Acoustically acquired continuous profiles of the shallow subsurface. Vertical resolution in decimetre range, lateral resolution in metre-range.

To map sediment thickness

What can I do with these data? Link the occurrence of particular seabed sediments to geological units in the shallow subsurface. What information lies there? Distribution of cohesive layers (clay, peat) that are a suitable substrate for borer shells. Measure of vertical variability, for predicting temporal seabed-sediment change in case of erosion. What are the limitations? Only top layer is relevant to habitat mapping.

To map both subtidal facies and relief Multibeam Echo Sounders

Digital Elevation Models of the seabed, obtained from multi-head echo sounder. Resolution in the order of 2 to 5 metres horizontal, 0.05 m vertical. Co-located backscatter images indicate seafloor roughness and hardness (as for side scan sonar).

What can I do with these data? Create detailed seafloor relief maps showing contours, slope, aspect, rugosity; Hydrographic charting; Benthic Terrain Modelling. Create backscatter maps of seabed facies (proxies for habitats) Guide ground truth sampling. What information lies there? Accurately georeferenced high-resolution bathymetry & backscatter data. What are the limitations?

System requires experienced operators Raw data must be processed to eliminate artefacts arising from vessel motion and variability in tidal height and sound velocity through water column. Swathe width is depth dependant.

Interferometric Sonar

To map both subtidal facies and relief

Digital Elevation Models of the seabed with similar quality to sidescan sonar. Resolution in the order of 2 to 5 metres horizontal, 0.05 m vertical. Swath width to 7 times water depth.

What can I do with these data? Create detailed seafloor relief maps showing contours, slope, aspect, rugosity, Hydrographic charting; Benthic Terrain Modelling. Create backscatter maps and infer sediment/substrate types. Guide ground truth sampling. What information lies there? Accurately georeferenced high-resolution bathymetry & backscatter data. What are the limitations? Requires experience operators and significant post-processing of data (as for multibeam). Generally more applicable in water shallower than 50m.

Single Beam Echosounders

To map both subtidal facies and relief

Echo-integration of acoustic profiles of the seabed. Deployed from light vessels in suitable weather conditions. Metric alongtrack resolution, vertical resolution 5 cm.

What can I do with these data? Ground truth swath acoustic techniques Fill gaps in swath data What information lies there? Identify seabed type, e.g. bare seabed, kelp, seagrass Estimate kelp biomass Measure depth profiles What are the limitations? Limited coverage Mis-interpretation of seagrass/ seaweeds

Photos by Ifremer

To map intertidal and shallow water relief Topographic Lidar

Digital Elevation Models of intertidal areas obtained from laser light return time. Dot spacing: metric, vertical accuracy 0.15 m, horizontal accuracy 1 metre.

What can I do with these data? Precise description of relief Guide intertidal field work Resource inventory (along with facies data) What information lies there? Highly detailed elevation data Height contours, slopes Computation of emersion time What are the limitations? Coverage limited by tidal height, surveys optimal at LWS tide

Photos by Ifremer

To map intertidal and shallow water relief Hydrographic Lidar

Digital Elevation Models of seabed areas obtained from laser light return time. Dot spacing: 2-5 m, vertical accuracy 0.25 m, horizontal accuracy 3-5 m.

What can I do with these data? Good description of seabed relief Guide subtidal field work What information lies there? Highly detailed elevation data Depth contours, slopes Potential identification of main seabed types (backscatter signature) What are the limitations? Limited by water clarity (3 times Secchi disk) Coverage limited by tidal height, surveys ideal at LWN tide

Photos by Ifremer

To map intertidal and shallow water relief Aerial stereo-photography

Digital Elevation Models of intertidal areas obtained from stereo aerial photographs. Grid spacing 2 to 5 metres, vertical accuracy 0.6 to 1 metre (with 1:25,000 photos)

What can I do with these data? A coarse description of relief A preliminary inventory of main coastal units What information lies there? Moderately detailed elevation data Coarse contours and slopes What are the limitations? Low tide survey needed Of limited use for underwater mapping.

Photos by Ifremer