Marine Futures Project Habitat Mapping Team

Brief description

The habitat mapping team, with members from UWA and Fugro has extensive experience, having produced marine habitat maps in Victoria (Coastal CRC) and the Recherche Archipelago. The team includes Associate Professor Kimberly Van Neil (UWA), Dr Karen Holmes (UWA), Simon Grove (UWA), Dr Ben Radford (UWA), Paul Kennedy (Fugro) and Christian Peranovic (Fugro). The development of habitat maps is the first phase in the marine futures project and consists of hydroacoustic surveys, towed video surveys and habitat classification. The Hydroacoustic surveys are marine surveys that collect seafloor contours (bathymetry) and the texture of the substrate. The underwater towed video sampling is undertaken following the hydroacoustic survey to 'ground truth' or interpret the signals from the hydroacoustic surveys. Some of the ‘rough’ habitat types (e.g. sand versus reef) can be identified from the hydroacoustic survey. However, the visual images from the towed video surveys take the habitat definition to the next level. The Habitat Mapping team consists of a Spatial Modelling Team which is based at UWA. The Spatial Modelling Team uses both the data from the hydroacoustic survey and the towed video survey to develop fine-scale habitat maps.