Bathymetry data from multibeam echosounders and other acoustic sources are now widely available in the form of digital terrain models, which are conveniently displayed as raster grids in desktop geographic information systems. Calculation of terrain variables such as slope is a simple push-button operation in most geographic information systems; however, as we demonstrate here, there can be a great variation in the slope values obtained due to computation algorithms and resolution or analysis scale. This article also demonstrates how Monte Carlo simulation can be used to visualise uncertainty in the underlying bathymetry dataset and also how this uncertainty impacts on slope calculations.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	slope, bathymetry, GIS, multibeam, terrain model, MAREANO
Research Division:	Biological Sciences
Research Group:	Ecology
Research Field:	Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology)
Objective Division:	Environmental Management
Objective Group:	Terrestrial systems and management
Objective Field:	Assessment and management of terrestrial ecosystems
UTAS Author:	Lucieer, VL (Dr Vanessa Lucieer)
ID Code:	91934
Year Published:	2014
Web of Science® Times Cited:	24
Deposited By:	Sustainable Marine Research Collaboration
Deposited On:	2014-06-03
Last Modified:	2017-10-24
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