Center for Coastal Resources Management

Research: Atlantic Sturgeon Spawning Habitat on the James River, Virginia

Principle Investigator:  Donna Marie Bilkovic, Funding Agencies (NOAA/NCBO and USFWS)

Acoustic Data Processing

Riverbed imagery obtained with a high-resolution remote sensing system – Marine Sonics 600 KHz sidescan transducer.

Acoustic signals categorized with QTC SideView, & geo-referenced profiles converted to GIS shapefiles to depict areas of classified habitats.

Software Processing Steps

1. Image Compensation - images of poor quality are omitted

2. Generate Rectangles - overlay on sonar images

3. Generate Image Descriptors - 135 Full Feature Vectors for each rectangle

4. Features Classified - with PCA cluster analyses & optimal number of Acoustic Signal Classes selected

5. Produce Seabed Classification Maps - GIS or Mapping Software