Satellite-Derived Bathymetry Technology Supports Coral Reef Restoration Efforts

Dr. Chris Roelfsema at the University of Queensland, Australia, together with his team and EOMAP, is developing effective geomorphological and habitat mapping at a Great Barrier Reef-wide scale.

The team has developed an advanced method for semi-automatically classifying coral geomorphic zonations and to some extent also habitats across very large marine dataset such as the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. EOMAP’s Satellite Derived Bathymetry and sub-surface reflectance layers are key inputs into the methodology.

Satellite Derived Bathymetry not only informs depth zones for habitats, but it also underpins the wave modeling which in turn influences the geomorphology classification.

Dr. Roelfsema and his team, including Dr. Magnus Wettle, Managing Director at EOMAP Australia, recently published their work in the top peer-reviewed remote sensing journal Remote Sensing of the Environment.

To learn more, click here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0034425718300117

In 2013, EOMAP mapped the shallow water bathymetry of the entire Great Barrier Reef in Australia at 30m grid resolution. This was the first depth map of its kind for the entire Great Barrier Reef, and also the largest optical Satellite Derived Bathymetry dataset ever made.