Shallow water bathymetry by satellite image: a case study on the coast of San Vito Lo Capo Peninsula, Northwestern Sicily, Italy

Muzirafuti Anselme, Crupi Antonio, Lanza Stefania, Barreca Giovanni, Randazzo Giovanni
2019 Zenodo  
Mapping coastal areas and shallow water depth has become an interesting topic for hydrographers and scientists. Many techniques using traditional methods have been used to map and study seabed evolutions of these areas. However, ships, vessels and aircrafts used for bathymetric surveys in shallow water present some limitations, especially their inability to map hard-to-reach areas and very near shoreline waters. In addition, the cost and human resources deployed to conduct these surveys make
more » ... m very expensive, even for small projects. In this paper we present a cost-effective tool and a practical method for bathymetric studies of shallow water using multispectral satellite images. We applied the Satellite-derived bathymetry (SDB) method on the coast of San Vito Lo Capo with a Geoeye-1 satellite image, using available field data for calibration and vertical referencing. The results show bathymetric information for a depth of 10 m with R 2 =0.753, contributing to the management of ports, maritime transport and the coastal environment in general.
doi:10.5281/zenodo.3759641 fatcat:kk2xoikltrg5ldmcuhtqlhgglq