Letard, Mathilde, Antoine Collin, Dimitri Lague, Thomas Corpetti, Yves Pastol, Anders Ekelund, Gérard Pergent, and Stéphane Costa. “Towards 3D mapping of seagrass meadows with topo-bathymetric lidar full waveform processing,” HAL-Inria. 2021. TOWARDS 3D MAPPING OF SEAGRASS MEADOWS WITH TOPO-BATHYMETRIC LIDAR FULL WAVEFORM PROCESSING - Archive ouverte HAL.
Abstract
Topo-bathymetric lidar is a powerful tool to survey coastal ecosystems while ensuring data continuity between land and water regardless of the nature of the terrain, and allowing the collection of information up to several dozens of metres deep. This study analyzes the potential of full waveform lidar data to monitor key ecosystems for climate change mitigation: seagrasses. It proposes an original way of processing topo-bathymetric lidar waveforms to map their spatial repartition and extent in Corsica (France). Waveform statistical and shape parameters are computed and used to produce a map of seagrass meadows that reaches over 86% of overall accuracy. Seagrass height is also extracted, offering perspectives for structural complexity assessment and ecosystem services quantification.
