GIS for remote sensing, analysis and visualisation of marine pollution and other marine ecosystem components

Abstract

Pollution detection, environment sensing and appropriate response strategies are important due to the marine ecosystemspsila continuous absorption of pollutants of various origins. Several approaches and techniques of measurements are available for marine environment monitoring including direct sampling, airborne and satellite imagery and underwater acoustics. The huge development in the information technology has provided the possibilities for much faster and more efficient access to survey data, allowing their remote, nearly real-time management, processing and visualisation. The proposed GIS is able to integrate many different types of marine pollution survey data, especially those acquired by various acoustic sensors like Multibeam Sonar Systems (MBSS), echosounder and Side Scan Sonars (SSS). It also supports instantaneous 2D and 3D visualisation in the form of thematic layers that can be overlaid. The system utilises the ArcSDE application server that facilitates storing and managing spatial data (raster, vector, and survey) in a database and ArcGIS Engine GlobeControl and MapControl components for georeferenced presentation of various objects. The set of geoprocessing and spatial analysis methods can be used in order to retrieve relevant information and analysis results.