POSTER Session 1

Simultaneous drone- and surface vehicle hyperspectral mapping of seagrass (Zostera marina) on the Norwegian Westcoast as a tool for coastal benthic habitat mapping

Hyperspectral imaging (HI) has become an emerging tool to identify biogeochemical objects of interest, including the mapping of shallow benthic habitats. Using an uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) it is possible to obtain high spatial scale (<1 cm) consisting of hyperspectral image pixels facilitating detailed classification of benthic macrofauna. In this study, HI is used on aerial drone as well as a USV equipped with an Underwater Hyperspectral Imager to map eelgrass meadows focusing on classification result comparisons between spatial resolutions between use of hyperspectral imaging from aerial drone vs USV. Preliminary results show that higher spatial resolution (0.5cmx0.5cm per image pixel) imaging from USV prevented spectral mixing and provided robust in situ spectral reflectance signatures compared to aerial drone with spatial resolution of 10×10 cm, improving spectral classification accuracy. On the other hand, spatial coverage of the USV was restricted to 1% of the area of the aerial drone limiting the spatial context. In the future, a combined drone and USV mission could provide information of major species and pigment groups of coastal benthic habitat communities for monitoring in a spatial extent versus time. The distribution of eelgrass meadows as a function, key environmental variables (light, depth, temperature, salinity, nutrients, human activities, substrate types, competition, predation) can be elucidated in aspatial- and temporal context as well as interaction between eelgrass patches with surrounding habitats. This study aims to support the future development of coastal benthic habitat mapping and monitoring by exploring the application of HI in mapping and monitoring.

*Malin Nevstad, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway

Håvard Løvås, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway

Joseph Garrett, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway

Pål Kvaløy, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway

Torkild Bakken, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway

Geir Johnsen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway

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