Objective The health of benthic communities is closely influenced by environmental impacts caused by human activities; at the same time many benthic communities play central roles in their respective ecosystems. Therefore, monitoring of benthic communities and the quantification of their living conditions is important, and can serve as a key indicator for sustainability of natural marine environments. Priorities for environmental protection are strengthened these years, and the demand for information at higher resolution scales is continually rising Thus, it is vital to develop methodologies dedicated to deliver high resolution information on the health of the marine environment. The overall objective of the sIOSONAR project is to develop and refine the fields of a. Stochastic descriptions of spatial patterns of benthic communities, b. image processing techniques, c. geostatistical estimation methods, as well as their links and interface,ending with an integrate methodology for sonar monitoring of benthic communities. The project will include comparative studies and validation of field results used to assess the reach of the method. Compared to existing benthic monitoring based on sampling, a successful outcome of this project would allow information to be collected at resolutions not attainable today, yet at the same cost level as that of today's monitoring based on sampling. The result will thus be a low-cost monitoring methodology delivering high resolution data for both small and large scale areas. It is expected that data collected in the project will be valuable to other research projects dealing with use of sonar technology in environmental and/ or biological contexts. Therefore, all data will be collected in a database, to be publically accessible preferably through Internet. The project is considered a step towards a larger goal of providing sonar pictures of of large sea bottom areas on levels equivalent to current earth observation technology or even to the clinical use of ultrasounding scanners. Fields of science natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesinternetnatural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdatabasesnatural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems Programme(s) FP4-MAST 3 - Specific programme of research and technological development in the field of marine science and technology, 1994-1998 Topic(s) 030103 - Underwater viewing Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF DENMARK EU contribution No data Address Building 321 2800 LYNGBY Denmark See on map Total cost No data Participants (4) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS Spain EU contribution No data Address 10,Avenida Reina Mercedes 10 41012 SEVILLA See on map Total cost No data Estudios Geologicos Marinos SA Spain EU contribution No data Address 14,Ramonet 28033 Madrid See on map Total cost No data Marin Mätteknik i Göteborg AB Sweden EU contribution No data Address 90,Byggnad 426 04 Vaestra Froelunda See on map Total cost No data Water Quality Institute Denmark EU contribution No data Address 11,Agern Allé 2970 Hørsholm See on map Total cost No data
