Files
Abstract
The mapping of coral reefs may be efficiently accomplished by the use of airborne laser bathymetry. However, there are often data holes within the bathymetry data which must be filled in order to produce a complete representation of the coral habitat. This study presents a method to fill these data holes through data merging and interpolation. We first merge ancillary digital sounding data with airborne laser bathymetry data of Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida. What follows is to generate an elevation surface of topography under the sea by spatial interpolation based on the dataset obtained in the first step. Four interpolation techniques, including Kriging, natural neighbor, spline and inverse distance weighted, are implemented and evaluated on their ability to accurately and realistically represent the shallow-water bathymetry of the study area. The natural neighbor technique is found to be the most effective qualitatively with a root mean square error of 3.8 meters. This enhanced digital elevation model is used in conjunction with Ikonos imagery to produce a complete, three-dimensional visualization of the study area.