Ok, it’s a bit overdue. But better late than never! BioBase customers will now see an updated and enhanced viewer for their EcoSound and EcoSat. No longer will users have to struggle to get their map to fit within the little square box of the old viewer with a Bing zoom level that either zoomed too close and cut off parts of the waterbody, or too far to see detail. Below we show you a few screenshots of the major improvements. You can see for yourself by logging into your own account or clicking the Log into DEMO button on the home page of biobasemaps.com, finding a waterbody of interest, and click on the Analyze/Edit button.
Tag: EcoSound
Determining dredging needs in lakes, ponds, and Arizona’s aqueduct system!
By Ray Valley
Aquatic Biologist and BioBase Product Expert
One of BioBase’s strengths is its simplicity. You don’t need an advanced engineering degree in hydrography to make a high quality bathymetric map with an off-the-shelf sonar device. If you have your transducer installed correctly, settings correct on your Lowrance, and achieve good coverage on your waterbody of interest, then BioBase’s EcoSound algorithm will produce a very precise, high quality bathymetric map output within minutes of upload to biobasemaps.com. The speed and ease of bathymetric mapping wins the day for many of our users, but perhaps even more valuable, is the benchmark you are setting for an unknown day in the future when something has changed on the lake and you need to have some “historical” information to understand how much change has taken place
Use Case: Monitoring Sedimentation
One of our most frequently asked questions by new users is “will BioBase measure sediment thickness or the depth of the sludge?” This was a source of a recent blog. Interestingly, the answer is different depending on how long our customers have been using BioBase. For the user who has no prior information about how deep the lake or pond is supposed to be, BioBase may not provide detailed enough information about the actual thickness of the sediment (sediment depth is correlated with EcoSound hardness but it is highly variable; see this blog for further details). However, for the pond management consultant who happened to “BioBase” a client’s pond in 2013 while she happened to be on site for another matter and is now hearing from the client in 2022 that his pond is “filling in,” the answer about whether BioBase can tell him how much sediment has filled in is a most definite yes! For this pond consultant, it was a most fortuitous (or perhaps prudent?) thing that she decided to voluntarily map her clients pond in 2013. Now with a 2022 survey, she can precisely quantify exactly how much sediment has accumulated and where over the 7 years by doing a simple subtraction of the depth and water volume between surveys and comparing maps. The comparison of maps can be done a fancy GIS way like described in this blog. Or a quick and easy way through BioBase (see examples below).
Continue reading “Determining dredging needs in lakes, ponds, and Arizona’s aqueduct system!”
Mapping Hidden Channels with Genesis Live
River channel thalwegs (the line of lowest elevation within a valley or watercourse) are often dynamic, and sometimes hidden features of large river systems. Especially low slope or impounded systems. The thalweg is a critical geomorphological feature of river and reservoir systems and affects everything from sediment transport, to fisheries habitat, to algae or invasive plant control.
Thus a good bathymetric contour map is a necessary pre-requisite for effective river and reservoir management. Here, we walk you through how to use new real time technologies (C-MAP’s Genesis Live) to produce smooth, precise, and accurate maps of hidden river thalwegs all within one trip to the site and with automated post-processing with BioBase’s EcoSound. We’ll use an annotated image gallery to take you through this process.
Continue reading “Mapping Hidden Channels with Genesis Live”
Utilization of a Web-Based Mapping Interface to Enhance Inland Fisheries Management Strategies in Texas
A. Adams, M. De Jesus, G. Cummings, and M. Farooqi
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Inland Fisheries
Abstract:
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Inland Fisheries (TPWD IF) biologists traditionally use “stand-alone” mapping interfaces to generate 2-dimensional (2-D) aerial outputs of fish habitat and benthic surveys of aquatic systems. Preliminary work has shown promise in the use of a different method, which generates interactive 3-dimensional (3-D) high-definition (HD) outputs. During field surveys, a Lowrance© Elite 9Ti GPS unit with TotalScan™ transducer was used to generate data points along boat transects on waterbodies of interest. A waterbody “Vegetation Analysis Report” and HD maps were then generated from these data using web-based mapping algorithms through BioBase©, and ArcMap 10.3© GIS software. Aquatic vegetation biovolume, bathymetric mapping, and benthic substrate composition outputs, produced by BioBase© aided biologists in selecting best management strategies, regarding aquatic vegetation management and angler access development at three central Texas impoundments. This tool can prove valuable to fisheries managers needing a higher resolution of survey results to fine-tune management strategies. At a cost of $2,5001 US for a yearlong subscription, cost-benefit would have to be assessed by individual users, based on their needs.
BioBase is now Metric compatible!
Ok. It’s long overdue. But, better late than never! Much to the delight of non-US users, now you can choose whether BioBase EcoSound outputs are in metric or imperial units.
Wish to change units of an already processed map?
If you processed a trip with one unit setting and wish to recontour the map in a different unit, simply change the unit in our Account Profile and then go back to the trip of interest and reprocess
Helpful Resources for Getting Started with BioBase’s EcoSound
BioBase is a powerful data collection and mapping tool for aquatic environments. To get the best results with BioBase – EcoSound, it is important to use proper hardware installation and data collection procedures. This post contains links to the resources that will help you get started with BioBase and get great data.
First, BioBase is only compatible with Lowrance and Simrad Sounders/Chartplotters. This blog offers helpful advice for which sonar to choose
Our quality control team reviews every uploaded trip and looks for glaring issues with the trip like evidence of a slanted transducer, signal loss, or poor signal quality. Its critically important that you have your transducer installed correctly. We recommend you take it to marina to have it professionally installed.
Our Quality Control Team may email you if they notice any significant issues with your trip, and suggest ways to fix the issue or ways to improve data quality before logging again. Waterbody boundary adjustment is part of the BioBase service but there will be a delay between when your trip is automatically processed and when Quality Control staff are able to adjust the boundary of your waterbody. Please allow one business day for quality control before finalizing or sharing your maps, or check the quality control review status by viewing a trip’s report.
If there is a quality control reviewer’s name on the report with comments, the trip has been reviewed. You can also see any comments that were not emailed to you on the report.
It is also important to keep your Lowrance software updated. Software updates can be found here. Outdated software can result in inaccurate or lost data!
Our YouTube channel has many helpful videos, including data editing tutorials.
This post gives an overview on how EcoSound works along with some answers to frequently asked questions that many new users have.
The EcoSound Quick Start Guide shows recommended settings to use while logging sonar. Print this guide and keep it on your survey boat.
The EcoSound Support and Resources page has links to the EcoSound Full Operator’s Guide as well as several tutorials, including guides for using EcoSound data in QGIS.
If you ever need any assistance, contact the BioBase support team at info@biobasemaps.com
Consumer Sonar for Bottom Mapping: Updated Reference List
Another FAQ we get is wondering if there are published studies using BioBase technology? There are many legacy applications on which the BioBase technology is based. Further, now that a sufficient passage of years has accumulated to support the research to publication cycle, we’re happy to share several BioBase-specific studies published in the peer-reviewed literature. We also cite some other key papers highlighting the use of consumer sonar technology for scientific research. This is far from an exhaustive list, especially with the growing body of references focusing on mapping with consumer side-scan. If there are good published papers you know of that are not on this list, please share in the comments.
Continue reading “Consumer Sonar for Bottom Mapping: Updated Reference List”
Minnesota LGU Taking Citizen Aquatic Plant Monitoring to New Level!
At conferences, we often encounter curious coordinators of citizen monitoring programs about how they could use automated consumer technologies to monitor aquatic habitats. When they learn what BioBase does, a frequent question is: “That sounds pretty cool and something we could certainly apply, who else is using BioBase for citizen science applications?”
In response, we always highlight the Prior Lake Spring Lake Watershed District (PLSLWD) in Minnesota USA. PLSLWD is a leader when it comes to leveraging the talents of volunteers, partners, and Lowrance and BioBase technology to implement a comprehensive, standardized aquatic plant monitoring program. To learn more about the PLSLWD’s program and implementation strategies, check out this report.
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| Schematic showing the collection of merged files collected by citizen volunteers. A PLSLWD intern coordinated efforts across multiple volunteers, informed citizens about desired travel routes, and even preloaded transect guides in their Lowrance Chartplotter for citizens to follow. |
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| Maps of Bottom Hardness (top), Bathymetry (middle), and Aquatic Vegetation Abundance (% of water column filled with vegetation or biovolume, Bottom) collected by citizens on Prior Lake with Lowrance Sounders/Chartplotters and processed automatically by BioBase Automated Lake Mapping System. |
BioBase EcoSound does Seagrass, Kelp, and Tides Too!
Although BioBase EcoSound was originally developed for aquatic vegetation mapping in inland lakes, users along both US Coasts have helped us diversify its toolbox to now be a powerful coastal habitat mapping tool as well!
One of the biggest challenges of mapping coastal habitats is their tidal influence with depths changing harmonically based on the moon phase and other factors. Fortunately, however, widespread tide stations and large public databases of tide predictions allow for accurate and precise offsets to georeferenced and time-stamped sonar logs from Lowrance HDS or Elite units uploaded to BioBase EcoSound. BioBase EcoSound immediately queries the nearest tide station to your upload (up to 75 km) and adjusts your depth and seagrass or kelp biovolume to the Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) datum every 5 minutes. Tidal statistics (Avg., start, stop, high, low,) are archived in your account for each trip.
Continue reading “BioBase EcoSound does Seagrass, Kelp, and Tides Too!”
Portability Options for Your Lowrance
Below we have a photo gallery of images that could help you design your own portable setup. Of primary importance, however, is a mount that minimizes cavitation (air bubbles) directly under the transducer (e.g., surface noise) and maintaining a correct angle on the transducer. See recent blogs on this topic. The preferable solution is to permanently mount separate transducers following DIY guidance like shown here on each survey craft and just move the Lowrance Elite or HDS display from boat to boat. But if the job calls for a fully portable mount, we can help!