Remote sensing of shallow waters – A 50 year retrospective and future directions

Technical advancements have widened the limits of remote sensing in mapping shallow water benthic habitats and bathymetry over the last decades. On the other hand, the needs of shallow water remote sensing have pushed instrument development. In this manuscript we provide 50-year retrospective of the developments in the field in terms of both instrumentation and methods. We also show that spectral features characteristic of the main benthic groups in shallow water are consistent from the tropics to sub-arctic regions and from salty to freshwaters. The fundamental limiting factor in both benthic mapping and bathymetry is absorption of light by water molecules. However, spectral absorption by water molecules is the key to bathymetry derivation. Variable backscattering by particles and absorption by dissolved organic matter is a confounding factor for all objectives. The combination of using the spectral and textural characteristics of bottom features and our knowledge about these features have now resulted in the ability to map habitats over large coastal systems. This manuscript has shown that optically shallow water remote sensing has reached levels where the satellite derived bathymetry and habitat maps are accepted by different end users (including the International Maritime Organisation) and are routinely used in ecological studies, monitoring and management of coastal environments.