Automatic calculation of bathymetry for coastal hydrodynamic models

P. Bailly Du Bois (1)

1 IRSN - Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire

A methodology is proposed to facilitate the construction of gridded bathymetry data for the use of hydrodynamic models on the continental shelf. It relies on the carrying out of three successive tasks: (1) automatic selection of records of better quality among multiple sets of overlapping data; (2) elimination of data points located on land; and (3) taking into account the shoreline as bathymetric data. Algorithms are proposed to perform sorting of the records according to their quality as well as masking by the coastline. The suggested method facilitates the updating of bathymetry data and optimizes their use. It enables automatic execution of all the tasks and building of new digital bathymetry models in a few hours, without action from the operator. The method has been tested many times on the continental shelf of NorthWest Europe. The bathymetric data so generated do not require corrections, and the hydrodynamic models on which these data are based could be very precise.

Keywords: modelling; bathymetry; sounding; continental shelf; quality

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Ocean, Atmosphere; Environmental Sciences; Environmental Engineering

P. Bailly Du Bois. Automatic calculation of bathymetry for coastal hydrodynamic models. Computers & Geosciences, 2011, 37 (9), pp.1303-1310. ⟨10.1016/j.cageo.2010.11.018⟩. ⟨hal-02433238⟩