Abstract

Introduction: Remotely-sensed acoustic backscatter is an indispensable tool for seabed mapping, among other disciplines. Almost a decade after the GeoHab Backscatter Working Group published its guidelines and recommendations report, new technologies, new challenges and new questions have emerged. Given the range of potential backscatter research avenues, it can be difficult to align research programs with the priorities of the community of practice. Prioritization of backscatter research topics is thus necessary to establish a roadmap for acoustic backscatter research efforts.

Methods: We asked the international community working with acoustic backscatter to submit their priority research questions over a 5- to 10-year horizon. We analyzed and curated a total of 177 research questions from 73 contributors, and the resulting 104 questions were grouped into eight broad recurring themes: “Technologies”, “Calibration”, “Data acquisition and ground-truthing”, “Data processing”, “Post-processing, quality control, data handling, and curation”, “Data analysis”, “Data interpretation”, and “Applications and end uses”. A follow-up survey based on the final list of questions was distributed to characterize the community working with backscatter and to identify key research priorities.

Results: A total of 120 responses originating from 23 countries were used for the analyses. Most respondents were researchers (68%), while others were technicians (25%) or department or program managers (11%), among other roles. Affiliations of respondents included academia (43%), governmental agencies (37%), and industry/private sector (18%). After scaling the responses, the most commonly selected theme was “Post-processing, quality control, data handling, and curation”, followed by “Calibration” and “Data analysis”. Respondents consistently ranked several research questions as priorities. The two questions that were identified as priorities by over 25% of respondents were “How can we move towards absolute calibration of different systems to allow interregional comparisons?”, and “How can we quantify seafloor backscatter quality and develop standards similar to what exists with bathymetry?”.

Discussion: All eight themes are represented in the top 10 priority questions, underscoring the need for contributions to backscatter research from multiple perspectives to advance the field. The ranking of priority questions encourages collaboration within the community and will serve as a roadmap for backscatter research programs over the next decade.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages16
JournalFrontiers in Remote Sensing
Volume5
Early online date7 Jan 2025
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Jan 2025

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank all who contributed questions to this effort, without whom this project would not have been possible, in particular: Pavanee Annasawmy (Université de Bretagne-Occidentale, UMR LEMAR), Alex Bastos (Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo), Jonathan Beaudoin (HydroOctave Consulting Inc.), Valérie Bellec (Geological Survey of Norway), Jennifer Brizzolara (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, Joint Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Technical Center of Expertise), Craig J. Brown (Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University), Shyam Chand (Geological Survey of Norway), Mark Coughlan (School of Earth Sciences, University College Dublin), Samuel Deleu (Flemish Hydrography, Agency for Maritime and Coastal Services), Markus Diesing (Geological Survey of Norway), Margaret F.J. Dolan (Geological Survey of Norway), Tracy Dornan (British Antarctic Survey), Agata Feldens (Subsea Europe Services GmbH), Peter Feldens (Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde), Paul G. Fernandes (Heriot-Watt University), Maximo Florin (Regional Center of Water Research, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha), Iason Zois Gazis (DSM Group, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel), the IFREMER French Oceanographic Fleet, Alexander R. Ilich (University of South Florida College of Marine Science), Tim Le Bas (National Oceanography Centre, United Kingdom), I. D. Lichtman (National Oceanography Centre), Tor Inge Birkenes Lønmo (Kongsberg Discovery), Duncan Mallace (XOCEAN), Giuseppe Masetti (Danish Geodata Agency), Amelia McReynolds (University of Vermont), Pedro Menandro (Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo), Sebastiaan Mestdagh (TU Delft), Garrett A. Mitchell (Fugro), Neil C. Mitchell (University of Manchester), Irène Mopin (ENSTA Bretagne), Iain Parnum (Curtin University), Peter Porskamp (Dalhousie University), Katleen Robert (Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University), Marc Roche (FPS Economy - Continental Shelf Service), Alexandre C. G. Schimel (Geological Survey of Norway), Val Schmidt (Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, University of New Hampshire), Stephen M. Simmons (Energy and Environment Institute, University of Hull), Craig Smeaton (University of St. Andrews), Terje Thorsnes (Geological Survey of Norway), Karolina Trzcinska (University of Gdansk), S. Harper Umfress (NOAA Office of Coast Survey), Christopher A. Unsworth (Bangor University), Thomas Vandorpe (Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)), Vera Van Lancker (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences), Francisco de Melo Viríssimo (Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science), Benjamin J. Williamson (University of the Highlands and Islands), and the other contributors who either wished to remain anonymous or from whom we could not get an authorization to be listed. We also extend our thanks to the many respondents who took the time to answer our survey. This work would not have been possible without these contributions, and we thank you all.

Funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. We acknowledge the contribution of the University of Florida that granted access to the Qualtrics™ platform to VL. VL’s participation to the 2022 BSWG workshop for the validation of the themes was made possible by contributions from the Département des sciences humaines et sociales and the Décanat de la recherche et de la création of the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. Article publishing charges are paid for through a Discovery Development Grant (DDG-2024-00018) from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada awarded to VL, and by the Décanat de la recherche et de la création of the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. FB’s contributions were carried out with the support of the Marine Institute (Grant-Aid Agreement No. CS/21/010) and funded under the Marine Research Programme by the Irish Government.

Keywords

  • remote sensing
  • acoustics
  • acoustic backscatter
  • ocean mapping
  • sonar

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Acoustics and Ultrasonics
  • Ocean Engineering

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