Exploring modern bathymetry: A comprehensive review of data acquisition devices, model accuracy, and interpolation techniques for enhanced underwater mapping

Abstract

Building a high-precision bathymetry digital elevation model is essential for navigation planning, marine and lake resource planning, port construction, and underwater archaeological projects. However, existing bathymetry methods have yet to be effectively and comparatively analyzed. This paper comprehensively reviews state-of-the-art bathymetry methods, including data acquisition techniques, model accuracy, and interpolation algorithms for underwater terrain mapping. First, We assess the merits and drawbacks of novel data acquisition devices, such as single-beam/multi-beam echo sounders and light detection and ranging systems. After that, we analyze the accuracy of the ETOPO1, GEBCO_2022 and SRTM15 to provide valuable insights into their performance. Furthermore, we evaluate ANUDEM, Inverse Distance Weighting, Kriging and Nearest Neighbor interpolation algorithms in different underwater terrains by comparing their applicability, reliability, and accuracy in various underwater environments. Finally, we discuss the development trends and challenges in underwater bathymetry technology and offer a forward-looking perspective on the future of this essential field.

A Dual Robust Strategy for Removing Outliers in Multi-Beam Sounding to Improve Seabed Terrain Quality Estimation

“…It is assumed that a certain range of submarine topography is a second-order smooth change [ 28 ]. The estimation model of sounding data using kriging algorithm is: where is the estimated sounding value of undetermined point x 0 , L i is the sounding value of neighboring point i , and λ i is the contribution value of point i to the estimation.…”

“…Subsequently, the actual values of variation function between known points, between estimated points and known points, were obtained. Theoretical fitting models of the variation function frequently employed the spherical and Gaussian models [ 28 ].…”

“…In addition, in order to identify smaller outlier locations and guarantee the continuity of seabed sounding, a variety of DEM interpolation construction techniques, including inverse distance weighting [ 26 ], nearest neighbor interpolation [ 27 ], and Kriging interpolation [ 28 ], have also been used to detect outliers and estimate the quality of depth measurements. Among them, kriging algorithm is used to take into account the spatial relationship between each sounding point and can obtain the optimal linear unbiased estimate of the variable.…”

Novel Learning of Bathymetry from Landsat 9 Imagery Using Machine Learning, Feature Extraction and Meta-Heuristic Optimization in a Shallow Turbid Lagoon

“…Bathymetry mapping, the measurement and study of underwater depth, is critical for various applications, such as marine navigation, coastal management, the monitoring of environmental and aquatic resources, and hydrographic scanning [1,2]. Field water depth collection and further data processing have recently been carried out using the common ship-, air-, and space-borne approaches [3]. The former uses single and multi-beam echo Geosciences 2024, 14, 130 2 of 24 sounding systems [3,4] to gather accurate and timely water depth datasets.…”

High-Resolution Bathymetry by Deep-Learning Based Point Cloud Upsampling

“…Both systems capture seafloor topology as point clouds, which are then transformed into gridded data for practical use. To obtain high-quality bathymetric data, various methods have been studied to obtain high-quality bathymetric data by considering topographic information, instrument characteristics, and effects of the measurement environment [1], [2].…”