Commissioned by Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM), the Natura2000-area Bratten in Skagerrak will be hydrographic surveyed by AquaBiota in collaboration with Clinton Marine Survey. In conjunction with this, marine survey data is also collected from shallow coastal waters with the purpose of interpreting benthic biotopes. A multibeam echo sounder capable of recording the intensity (or backscatter) data of the reflected return echo will be used. The possibility to use backscatter data together with high density bathymetric data either directly for mapping purposes or indirectly as basis for modelling or interpreting the distribution of benthic vegetation, will be investigated.
The survey data was collected in shallow coastal areas close to Gothenburg and Stockholm. A new co-worker, Trolle Carlsson, has been employed to collect data and work with data analysis. The results will be presented in a report and visualized as a set of maps. The overall goal of the project is to contribute to a more efficient use of regular marine survey data.
M/V Nils is one of three vessels operated by Clinton Marine Survey and is used in this project to survey shallow coastal waters outside Gothenburg.
The configurations of the settings of the MBES is easily changed to make it more sensitive to the detection of vegetation. All transects are surveyed twice with different settings to assess the relative potential of regular survey data for mapping benthic vegetation.
Marine survey data is draped with continuous video data representing ground truth. The camera is towed after the boat and the video data is positioned to fit the survey data in post processing.