Bathymetric extraction using WorldView-2 High resolution Images

The fundamental principle underlying the methods used to extract bathymetric information from remote-sensed imagery is that different wavelengths of the solar light penetrate the water body to different depths. In order to extract bathymetric values from multispectral satellite imagery we implemented the Jupp method (Jupp, 1988), in IDL language and integrated it in the ENVI menu structure. In this experiment we apply this method to two images of the Poetto beach in Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy) acquired from the new-generation WorldView-2 sensor. Launched in October 2009, the WorldView-2 sensor provides, among others, one (named Coastal) that was designed specifically for this kind of analysis; we chose to use the Coastal band in place of the Blue one when applying the model. The images (a stereoscopic pair) were acquired on June 17, 2011. The 5419 scene was pre-processed in order to separate the sea bottom classes. This class was then georeferenced to overlap on the 5318 scene. A traditional bathymetric survey was performed, up to 1,50 m, planned and carried out in order to calibrate the model. For each scene, 10 calibration areas were selected, and for each of them a digital model of the sea bottom was generated. Precision and accuracy of the method were evaluated by analyzing the results extracted from the stereo-pairs and by examining the correlation between the surveyed depth values and the calculated ones, between the different models calculated from the same scene using different calibration areas, and between the models obtained from the two images.