GEOG40990

With an increasing awareness of the role of our oceans in regulating global climate and
providing a sustainable and economically important resource – seabed mapping data is
improving our understanding of our oceans and the natural processes occurring at the
seafloor.

INFOMAR (Integrated Mapping for the Sustainable Development of Ireland’s marine
resource) is a well-established national programme of seabed mapping. The programme has
been running since 2000 and during that time has become one of the global leaders in seabed
mapping. INFOMAR acquires, processes and interprets seabed mapping datasets to address
important issues that have an environmental, societal and economic impact. These include
safe navigation, sustainable fisheries, climate change, sea-level rise, the increased incidence
of storms, coastal defence / flooding, pollution, offshore renewable energy and management
of marine ecosystems.

This module is based on theory lectures, tutorials and introduces (i) coastal and marine
remote sensing its framework, applications and impacts (ii) the Irish national seabed mapping
programme, INFOMAR, detailing the science behind ocean mapping, survey planning, data
acquisition, processing techniques, and product development (iii) spatial data management
tools for coastal and ocean remote sensing.

Topics include;
1. Overview of seabed mapping in Ireland and worldwide
2. Ocean science policy framework
3. Applications of mapping surveys
4. Oceanography
5. Seafloor processes
6. Historical development of ocean Remote Sensing
7. Platforms and systems
8. Positioning and uncertainty
9. Scales and spatial resolution issues
10. Datums and projections
11. Processing marine datasets
12. Marine ecosystems
13. Satellite derived bathymetry
14. Photogrammetry in the coastal zone
15. Data interpretation and 3D visualization
16. Mapping data products
17. European marine data portals
18. Stakeholders and users
19. Big data and connectivity
20. Societal and economic impacts
21. Training and career opportunities