Acoustic systems such as echosounders and sidescan  sonars are effective tools for acquiring bathymetry and for providing images of the bottom topography in coastal  oceans, lakes, reservoirs, and rivers. Environmental and fisheries scientists, naval  research scientists, and engineers planning seabed installations require more than  a knowledge of only the bottom depth in present-day applications in advanced  research - they need to know the sediment type and its characteristics. This  information is available through a new enabling technology, remote acoustic sediment  classification. Acoustic sediment classification combines the bottom mapping capability  of present-day sonars with the identification of the type of bottom material.   Analysis of the details and structure of the sonar echoes provides the means to  classify sediments, that is, to determine the composition (sand, silt, etc.), the  vegetation cover, and to extract other information including geotechnical properties.

     Despite the high level of research and development  effort in sonar systems world wide, there are few systems, either commercial or  research, capable of classifying a wide range of bottom properties by remote  sensing. One system that has successfully demonstrated this capability is QTC View,  produced by Quester Tangent Corporation in Sidney, BC. The system connects to most  conventional echosounders and processes the sonar echoes to provide rapid and accurate  classification of extensive areas of the seabed. QTC View has established Quester Tangent  as a recognized world leader in this work with systems in use in more than 21  countries, for applications in both salt and fresh water.

     The University of Victoria has established a Canadian  facility for Marine Acoustic Remote Sensing (C-MARS) in the Ocean Acoustics Group at the  School of Earth and Ocean Sciences. The facility combines the technical expertise in  acoustic classification technology at Quester Tangent with the expertise in underwater  and sediment acoustics and signal processing in the Ocean Acoustics Group. The structure  of the proposed facility is shown in the diagram. Operating with state-of-the-art Quester  Tangent (QT) hardware and software, users of the facility have the capability to acquire,  process and interpret new acoustic data for a very wide range of applications. The  resident expertise at the centre or hub is linked to clusters of expertise in other  research fields. The facility provides a site for scientists from various other  disciplines to apply remote acoustic classification technology in their research.   It promotes interdisciplinary collaborations leading to new research projects in  non-traditional applications in environmental and fish habitat studies, in hydrography,  in forestry, and in support of naval research activities; it also enhances opportunities  for more traditional geotechnical research.

     The equipment required for the new facility includes  echosounders and differential GPS navigation systems, and the QT Seabed-Pro acoustic  classification system with full waveform logging for acoustic data acquisition; NT  computer workstations, printers and QT software for processing and displaying new or  existing data. In addition to acoustic data acquisition and processing, the facility  also operates ground truthing systems for independent assessment of the bottom materials,  and a geographical information system (GIS) that enables rapid comparison of multivariate  spatial data sets with the acoustic classified bottom types. Equipment required for these  operations includes bottom sediment grab samplers, video cameras and sediment penetrometers  that can be deployed at experimental sites, and the CARIS GIS software.

     The C-MARS facility is unique in Western Canada, and provides  core research capabilities that are not supported at any other similar centre in Canada.   Its location in Victoria connects it with local federal and provincial laboratories in  forestry, fisheries, hydrography and geoscience, and place it amidst a thriving  industrial community engaged in marine technology research and development. The  links with the local government laboratories provide unique opportunities for accessing  ship time for experimental work in collaborative projects. UVic also operates its own  research vessel that can be used for experimental work in coastal environments.   The C-MARS facility complements an existing research infrastructure in the Ocean Acoustics  Group, the Canadian Ocean Acoustic Measurement System (COAMS) seismic data acquisition  system that was previously funded by a New Investigator award from CFI. The combination  of the two research facilities establishs a unique capability for marine science  research based on acoustic characterization of the seabottom materials: COAMS for  seismic applications to investigate the structure of the sub bottom; and C-MARS for  applications requiring high-resolution information about the sea floor materials.   This dual capability adds considerable scope to the UVic research program in earth  and ocean systems.

     The C-MARS facility is located in the Ocean Acoustics space at  UVic. Administration of the new facility is handled by the Centre for Earth and Ocean  Research (CEOR), which acts as an agent to facilitate interdisciplinary research at UVic.   Research activities at C-MARS are managed by a management committee that reports to  the Director of CEOR. Principal Investigators from other universities have direct  access to the facility in collaborative projects, while non-university researchers  can interact via CEOR with graduate students at UVic by affiliating as adjunct faculty  with the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences.

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