• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.162-168
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• 2017

Shallow-water bathymetry survey has been conducted using high definition color images obtained at the altitude of 100 m above sea level using a drone. Shallow-water bathymetry data are one of the most important input data for the research of beach erosion problems. Especially, accurate bathymetry data within closure depth are critically important, because most of the interesting phenomena occur in the surf zone. However, it is extremely difficult to obtain accurate bathymetry data due to wave-induced currents and breaking waves in this region. Therefore, optical remote sensing technique using a small drone is considered to be attractive alternative. This paper presents the potential utilization of image processing algorithms using multi-variable linear regression applied to red, green, blue and grey band images for estimating shallow water depth using a drone with HD camera. Optical remote sensing analysis conducted at Wolpo beach showed promising results. Estimated water depths within 5 m showed correlation coefficient of 0.99 and maximum error of 0.2 m compared with water depth surveyed through manual as well as ship-board echo-sounder measurements.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.553-560
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• 2020

This paper presents an algorithm for identifying and eliminating errors by seagrasses in coastal bathymetry surveying using drone and HD camera. Survey errors due to seagrasses were identified, segmentated and eliminated using a L∗a∗b color space model. Bathymetry survey using a drone and HD camera has many advantages over conventional survey methods such as ship-board acoustic sounder or manual level survey which are time consuming and expensive. However, errors caused by sea bed reflectance due to seagrasses habitat hamper the development of new surveying tool. Seagrasses are the flowering plants which start to grow in November and flourish to maximum density until April in Korea. We developed a new algorithm for identifying seagrasses habitat locations and eliminating errors due to seagrasses to get the accurate depth survey data. We tested our algorithm at Wolpo beach. Bathymetry survey data which were obtained using a drone with HD camera and calibrated to eliminate errors due to seagrasses, were compared with depth survey data obtained using ship-board multi-beam acoustic sounder. The abnormal bathymetry data which are defined as the excess of 1.5 times of a standard deviation of random errors, are composed of 8.6% of the test site of area of 200 m by 300 m. By applying the developed algorithm, 92% of abnnormal bathymetry data were successfully eliminated and 33% of RMS errors were reduced.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.77-88
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• 2007

Following a successful bathymetric mapping demonstration in a previous study, the potential of airborne EM for seafloor characterisation has been investigated. The sediment thickness inferred from 1D inversion of helicopter-borne time-domain electromagnetic (TEM) data has been compared with estimates based on marine seismic studies. Generally, the two estimates of sediment thickness, and hence depth to resistive bedrock, were in reasonable agreement when the seawater was ${\sim}20\;m$ deep and the sediment was less than ${\sim}40\;m$ thick. Inversion of noisy synthetic data showed that recovered models closely resemble the true models, even when the starting model is dissimilar to the true model, in keeping with the uniqueness theorem for EM soundings. The standard deviations associated with shallow seawater depths inferred from noisy synthetic data are about ${\pm}5\;%$ of depth, comparable with the errors of approximately ${\pm}1\;m$ arising during inversion of real data. The corresponding uncertainty in depth-to-bedrock estimates, based on synthetic data inversion, is of order of ${\pm}10\;%$. The mean inverted depths of both seawater and sediment inferred from noisy synthetic data are accurate to ${\sim}1\;m$, illustrating the improvement in accuracy resulting from stacking. It is concluded that a carefully calibrated airborne TEM system has potential for surveying sediment thickness and bedrock topography, and for characterising seafloor resistivity in shallow coastal waters.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.495-508
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• 2019

Tidal datums are key and basic information used in fields of navigation, coastal structures' design, maritime boundary delimitation and inundation warning. In Korea, the Approximate Lowest Low Water (ALLW) and the Approximate Highest High Water (AHHW) have been used as levels of tidal datums for depth, coastline and vertical clearances in hydrography and coastal engineering fields. However, recently the major maritime countries including USA, Australia and UK have adopted the Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT) and the Highest Astronomical Tide (HAT) as the tidal datums. In this study, 1-hr interval 19-year sea level records (1999-2017) observed at 9 tidal observation stations along the west and south coasts of Korea were used to calculate LAT and HAT for each station using 1-minute interval 19-year tidal prediction data yielded through three tidal harmonic methods: 19 year vector average of tidal harmonic constants (Vector Average Method, VA), tidal harmonic analysis on 19 years of continuous data (19-year Method, 19Y) and tidal harmonic analysis on one year of data (1-year Method, 1Y). The calculated LAT and HAT values were quantitatively compared with the ALLW and AHHW values, respectively. The main causes of the difference between them were explored. In this study, we used the UTide, which is capable of conducting 19-year record tidal harmonic analysis and 19 year tidal prediction. Application of the three harmonic methods showed that there were relatively small differences (mostly less than ±1 cm) of the values of LAT and HAT calculated from the VA and 19Y methods, revealing that each method can be mutually and effectively used. In contrast, the standard deviations between LATs and HATs calculated from the 1Y and 19Y methods were 3~7 cm. The LAT (HAT) differences between the 1Y and 19Y methods range from -16.4 to 10.7 cm (-8.2 to 14.3 cm), which are relatively large compared to the LAT and HAT differences between the VA and 19Y methods. The LAT (HAT) values are, on average, 33.6 (46.2) cm lower (higher) than those of ALLW (AHHW) along the west and south coast of Korea. It was found that the S_a and N₂ tides significantly contribute to these differences. In the shallow water constituents dominated area, the M₄ and MS₄ tides also remarkably contribute to them. Differences between the LAT and the ALLW are larger than those between the HAT and the AHHW. The asymmetry occurs because the LAT and HAT are calculated from the amplitudes and phase-lags of 67 harmonic constituents whereas the ALLW and AHHW are based only on the amplitudes of the 4 major harmonic constituents.