Preliminary results for hydrographic seabed analysis with acoustic devices

Acoustic technology is one of the most effective tool in investigating seabed characteristics because of the sound property to propagate for long distance in the water. For this reason analysis of acoustic spectra of seafloor is suitable to identify many physical aspects such as reflectivity, absorption coefficient, etc. connected to different kind of seabed. With this purpose, the work presented wants to show preliminary results in analysis of seabed acoustic profiles performed with echosounding technique. In particular we propose results obtained during surveys in Biograd Na Moru (Croatia), in which raw acoustic data of the seafloor are collected by a double frequency echosounder. The very preliminary analysis shows differences in echoes shapes connected to the presence of different features of seabed (sand, rocks, seagrass). The aim of the work is to investigate if there is the possibility to use acoustic features of seabed to build a classification method in order to recognize different aspects of seafloor and its composition.