Objective Detailed knowledge of the distribution and dynamical behaviour of shallow water seabed features such as sand waves and sand banks is of vital importance to the construction of effective coastal defences, to the operational guidance of shipping traffic in shallow seas and to the understanding of the benthic processes influencing eco-system development in shelf-sea regions. The dynamical behaviour of seabed features is presently described by a number of theoretical models. The development of truly effective morphodynamic models is, however, hampered by a poor understanding of the underlying physical processes. In principle, this difficulty could be overcome by gathering long time-series and synoptic data of both bottom topography and hydrometeorological conditions, from which the gradual development of sand waves and sand banks could be observed. In practice, use of the conventional methods of sounding to obtain depth information would become enormously time consuming and expensive if truly synoptic views are required. This proposal aims at developing techniques to provide a frequent and relatively low- cost bottom topography surveillance capability over large areas of the European shelf seas by integrating SAR observations with a limited number of ship-based echo soundings. The objectives of the project are: 1. Validation and improvement of the forward suite of models describing the mapping of sea bottom topography. 2. Development of techniques to measure the quality of SAR imagery, reduce speckle, to detect and to mitigate interference due to phenomena not related to sea bottom topography, such as slicks, wind-rows, fronts and wakes in SAR imagery. 3. To validate available inverse models for retrieving sea bottom topography information from SAR imagery. 4. Establishment of the possibilities and limitations of mapping sea bottom topography in terms of horizontal resolution and in terms of horizontal and vertical mapping accuracy. 5. Investigation of the applicability of sea bottom topography observations obtained by imaging radars for the monitoring of changes in sea bottom topography in order to study its dynamical behaviour. 6. The investigation of the potential of C-band SAR for sea bottom topography applications. Fields of science natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyplanetary sciencesplanetary geologyengineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsradio technologyradarengineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorsnatural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems Programme(s) FP3-MAST 2 - Specific research and technological development programme (EEC) in the field of marine science and technology, 1990-1994 Topic(s) 0201 - Coastal physical processes Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator Stichting Waterloopkundig Laboratorium EU contribution No data Address 8300 AD Emmeloord Netherlands See on map Total cost No data Participants (4) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all Christian-Albrechts Universität Kiel Germany EU contribution No data Address Wischhofstraße 1-3 24148 Kiel See on map Total cost No data MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT PUBLIC WORKS AND WATER MANAGEMENT Netherlands EU contribution No data Address Kortenaerkade 1 2500 EX DEN HAAG ('S-GRAVENHAGE) See on map Total cost No data NETHERLANDS ORGANISATION FOR APPLIED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH - TNO Netherlands EU contribution No data Address 63,Oude Waalsdorperweg 63 2509 JG DEN HAAG ('S-GRAVENHAGE) See on map Total cost No data UNIVERSITY OF HAMBURG Germany EU contribution No data Address Troplowitzstrasse 7 22529 HAMBURG See on map Total cost No data