{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,7]],"date-time":"2026-04-07T02:55:13Z","timestamp":1775530513936,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":56,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,1]],"date-time":"2021-05-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1619827200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["41676088"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41676088"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The use of multibeam echosounder systems (MBES) for detailed seafloor mapping is increasing at a fast pace. Due to their design, enabling continuous high-density measurements and the coregistration of seafloor\u2019s depth and reflectivity, MBES has become a fundamental instrument in the advancing field of acoustic seafloor classification (ASC). With these data becoming available, recent seafloor mapping research focuses on the interpretation of the hydroacoustic data and automated predictive modeling of seafloor composition. While a methodological consensus on which seafloor sediment classification algorithm and routine does not exist in the scientific community, it is expected that progress will occur through the refinement of each stage of the ASC pipeline: ranging from the data acquisition to the modeling phase. This research focuses on the stage of the feature extraction; the stage wherein the spatial variables used for the classification are, in this case, derived from the MBES backscatter data. This contribution explored the sediment classification potential of a textural feature based on the recently introduced Weyl transform of 300 kHz MBES backscatter imagery acquired over a nearshore study site in Belgian Waters. The goodness of the Weyl transform textural feature for seafloor sediment classification was assessed in terms of cluster separation of Folk\u2019s sedimentological categories (4-class scheme). Class separation potential was quantified at multiple spatial scales by cluster silhouette coefficients. Weyl features derived from MBES backscatter data were found to exhibit superior thematic class separation compared to other well-established textural features, namely: (1) First-order Statistics, (2) Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrices (GLCM), (3) Wavelet Transform and (4) Local Binary Pattern (LBP). Finally, by employing a Random Forest (RF) categorical classifier, the value of the proposed textural feature for seafloor sediment mapping was confirmed in terms of global and by-class classification accuracies, highest for models based on the backscatter Weyl features. Further tests on different backscatter datasets and sediment classification schemes are required to further elucidate the use of the Weyl transform of MBES backscatter imagery in the context of seafloor mapping.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs13091760","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,1]],"date-time":"2021-05-01T21:35:39Z","timestamp":1619904939000},"page":"1760","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Acoustic Seafloor Classification Using the Weyl Transform of Multibeam Echosounder Backscatter Mosaic"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7219-9520","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ting","family":"Zhao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Automation, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China"},{"name":"Engineering Research Center of Navigation Instruments, Ministry of Education, Harbin 150001, China"},{"name":"Department of Telecommunications and Information Processing, TELIN-GAIM, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9599-2425","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giacomo","family":"Montereale Gavazzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Operational Directorate Natural Environment, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, 1000 Brussels, Belgium"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2772-9240","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sr\u0111an","family":"Lazendi\u0107","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Telecommunications and Information Processing, TELIN-GAIM, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium"},{"name":"Department of Mathematical Analysis, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium"}]},{"given":"Yuxin","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Automation, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China"},{"name":"Engineering Research Center of Navigation Instruments, Ministry of Education, Harbin 150001, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9322-4999","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Aleksandra","family":"Pi\u017eurica","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Telecommunications and Information Processing, TELIN-GAIM, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"948","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1149345","article-title":"A global map of human impact on marine ecosystems","volume":"319","author":"Halpern","year":"2008","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"762","DOI":"10.1016\/j.marpol.2008.03.021","article-title":"The importance of marine spatial planning in advancing ecosystem-based sea use management","volume":"32","author":"Douvere","year":"2008","journal-title":"Mar. 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