Pathfinder: The use of multibeam echo-sounding in quantifying and monitoring water quality and sediment fluxes in aquatic environments

探路者：使用多波束回声探测来量化和监测水生环境中的水质和沉积物通量

• 批准号: NE/J011428/1
• 负责人: Daniel Parsons
• 金额: $ 1.71万
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2011 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FJ011428%2F1
• 关键词: Pathfinder; use; multibeam; echo; sounding

All natural water flows on the Earth's surface transport sediment (including muds, sands and silts), both along their beds and also suspended within the flow. Sediment transport and deposition result in a wide scale of features from the smallest-scale sand ripples to the largest river deltas and submarine sediment fans. Additionally, understanding the transport of sediment is vital in assessing the fate of pollutant particles in many environments and in a range of industrial applications, such as the erosion and transport of sediment around engineering structures, for instance around bridges and sub-sea installations and during dredging operations. In order to better understand the transport and deposition of sediment in the natural environment, and thus feed this into environmental management strategies (and the meeting of the water framework directive), we require methods that will allow us to measure the shape, or morphology, of the bed (sea bed, lake bed, river bed) surface and measure the transport of sediment. Recent years have seen astonishing progress in the development of multibeam echo sounding (MBES) systems, which use an array of echo-sounder beams to measure the form of the surface at the base of water flows (such as the bed of oceans or rivers) at a very high accuracy (down to millimeters in vertical precision). These instruments use the reflection of sound from the bed to measure the depth of the fluid, and hence construct detailed maps of the bed sediment surface. These instruments allow us to view the bottom of rivers and oceans as if all the water had been slowly drained, and the depositional form left untouched and perfectly displayed. This technique has generated a step change in how we can view the Earth's surface, which depositional forms are present and how we may interpret them and such high-resolution surveys also allow us to look at the change in shape at different time periods, and thus assess changing sediment volumes in time, in response to both human impacts and natural changes.Under a recently completed NERC Partnership Grant the applicants, with Project Partners RESON, have developed a methodology using MBES for concurrently quantifying bathymetry and the concentrations and fluxes of suspended sediment within the water column, using information contained in the acoustic returns derived from the passage of the acoustic sound beams through the water column. We have developed a suite of processing codes and software that conducts the analysis of these vast data sets and have assembled a set of calibrations for converting the acoustic returns into quantifiable sediment concentrations. The goal of this follow on fund project will be to examine and define the full potential for the commercial exploitation of the technique, most likely through the integration of our codes and routines within IVS3D's Fledermaus, one of the world leaders in the processing and display of 3D time-varying datasets. IVS3D are project partners in this application and the full route to market and commercial exploitation analysis will be conducted by TechnologyfromIdeas (included in the project as partners), who are an independent technology transfer consultancy contracted by the University of Leeds Business and Enterprise Centre. They will provide full market assessments and reports related to the potential commercialisation of the technology.

地球表面的所有自然水流都沿着河床和水流中悬浮的泥沙（包括泥、沙和淤泥）运输。泥沙的搬运和沉积形成了从最小尺度的沙波纹到最大的河流三角洲和海底沉积扇的广泛特征。此外，了解沉积物的运输对于评估污染物颗粒在许多环境和一系列工业应用中的命运至关重要，例如工程结构周围（例如桥梁和海底设施周围）和疏浚作业期间沉积物的侵蚀和运输。为了更好地了解自然环境中沉积物的运输和沉积，从而将其纳入环境管理策略（以及水框架指令的会议），我们需要能够测量床（海床、湖床、河床）表面的形状或形态并测量沉积物运输的方法。近年来，在多波束回声探测（MBES）系统的发展方面取得了惊人的进展，该系统使用一系列回声探测仪波束以非常高的精度（垂直精度可达毫米）测量水流底部（如海洋或河流的底部）的表面形状。这些仪器利用海底声音的反射来测量流体的深度，从而绘制出海底沉积物表面的详细地图。这些仪器使我们能够观察河流和海洋的底部，就好像所有的水都被慢慢地排干了，沉积形式没有被破坏，而且完美地展示了出来。这项技术在我们观察地球表面的方式、存在的沉积形式以及我们如何解释它们方面产生了巨大的变化，这种高分辨率的调查也使我们能够看到不同时期的形状变化，从而评估随人类影响和自然变化而变化的沉积物体积。根据最近完成的NERC伙伴关系拨款，申请人与项目合作伙伴RESON一起开发了一种方法，使用MBES同时量化水深和水柱内悬浮沉积物的浓度和通量，使用声学声束通过水柱产生的声学返回信息。我们开发了一套处理代码和软件，对这些庞大的数据集进行分析，并组装了一套校准方法，将声学返回转换为可量化的沉积物浓度。这个后续基金项目的目标将是检查和定义该技术商业开发的全部潜力，最有可能通过将我们的代码和例程集成到IVS3D的Fledermaus中，后者是处理和显示3D时变数据集的世界领导者之一。IVS3D是该应用程序的项目合作伙伴，市场和商业开发分析的完整路线将由technology from ideas（作为合作伙伴包括在该项目中）进行，该公司是利兹大学商业和企业中心签约的独立技术转让咨询公司。他们将提供有关该技术潜在商业化的全面市场评估和报告。