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Bottom and Suspended Sediment Backscatter Measurements in a Flume—Towards Quantitative Bed and Water Column Properties

Van Dijk, Thaiënne A.G.P.; Roche, Marc; Lurton, Xavier; Fezzani, Ridha; Simmons, Stephen M.; Gastauer, Sven; Fietzek, Peer; Mesdag, Chris; Berger, Laurent; Klein Breteler, Mark; Parsons, Dan R.

Authors

Thaiënne A.G.P. Van Dijk

Marc Roche

Xavier Lurton

Ridha Fezzani

Sven Gastauer

Peer Fietzek

Chris Mesdag

Laurent Berger

Mark Klein Breteler

Dan R. Parsons



Abstract

For health and impact studies of water systems, monitoring underwater environments is essential, for which multi-frequency single- and multibeam echosounders are commonly used state-of-the-art technologies. However, the current scarcity of sediment reference datasets of both bottom backscatter angular response and water column scattering hampers empirical data interpretation. Comprehensive reference data derived from measurements in a controlled environment should optimize the use of empirical backscatter data. To prepare for such innovative experiments, we conducted a feasibility experiment in the Delta Flume (Deltares, The Netherlands). Several configurations of sonar data were recorded of the flume floor and suspended sediment plumes. The results revealed that flume reverberation was sufficiently low and that the differential settling of fine-sand plumes in the water column was clearly detected. Following this successful feasibility test, future comprehensive experiments will feature multi-frequency multi-angle measurements on a variety of sediment types, additional scatterers and sediment plumes, resulting in reference datasets for an improved interpretation of underwater backscatter measurements for scientific observation and sustainable management.

Citation

Van Dijk, T. A., Roche, M., Lurton, X., Fezzani, R., Simmons, S. M., Gastauer, S., …Parsons, D. R. (2024). Bottom and Suspended Sediment Backscatter Measurements in a Flume—Towards Quantitative Bed and Water Column Properties. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 12(4), Article 609. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse12040609

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 28, 2024
Online Publication Date Mar 31, 2024
Publication Date Apr 1, 2024
Deposit Date Apr 18, 2024
Publicly Available Date Apr 22, 2024
Journal Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Electronic ISSN 2077-1312
Publisher MDPI
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 12
Issue 4
Article Number 609
DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse12040609
Keywords Multibeam backscatter; Flume experiment; Underwater habitat mapping; Water column; Suspended sediment plumes
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4626651

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Copyright Statement
© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).




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