COMPARISON BETWEEN HYDRO-ACOUSTIC AND REMOTE SENSING IN DEPTH MAPPING

Adam Irwansyah
Faculty of Earth Sciences and Technology, Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia
Irwansyah.adam@students.itera.itb.ac.id

1. Hydro-acoustic

Hydroacoustics is a general term for the study and application of sound in water. Hydroacoustic
involves passive acoustics and active acoustics making a sound and listening for the echo.
Hydroacoustics can be utilized to detect the depth of a water body (bathymetry). Some of hydro-
acoustic method are singlebeam echo sounders and multibeam echo sounders.

Figure 1. Hydro-acoustic methods

The advantage of using hydroacoustic include the capability to get sample multiple depth intervals
simultaneously, and collect and process large amounts of information in real time. The disadvantages
of using hydroacoustic include require longer time to survey large areas, limitations of gear in shallow
water the necessity to ground-truth surveys, and the need to obtain accurate target strength estimates
that correspond to the collection of echointegration data.

2. Remote sensing
Remote sensing can provide useful qualitative information of water depth. However the interpretation
of this photography is impeded by the fact that water depth variations are not easily distinguished from
bottom color differences. The use of digitally recorded multispectral scanner data permits corrections to
be made for surface reflection effects and also allows the possibility of automatic recognition of bottom
features and water depth using radiometric techniques. Some of remote sensing method are aerial
photography and satellite altimetry.
 Figure 2. Remote sensing methods

The benefit of remote sensing method for mapping water depth are increased operational flexibility,
since the wavelength bands are not restricted by the requirement of equal bottom reflectance ratios for
all bottom types, lower sensitivity to noise and improved performance through the use of more than
two wavelength bands. Fundamental limitations to remote sensing such as the limited penetration of
light in water and areas of heterogeneous substrate. Some, such as the variable attenuation of light in
the water column and atmosphere.

References
International Hydrography Organization. (2010). Chapter 3 Depth Determination. In IHO, Manual on
Hydrography. IHO.

R.Lyzenga, D. (1978, February 1). Passive Remote Sensing Techniques for Mapping Water Depth and
Water Features. p. 382.

Wikepedia. (2014, September 2). Retrieved October 8, 2014, from Wikepedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroacoustics