National mapping programs (e.g., INFOMAR and MAREANO) and global efforts (Seabed 2030) acquire large volumes of multibeam echosounder data to map large areas of the seafloor. Developing an objective, automated and repeatable approach to extract meaningful information from such vast quantities of data is now essential. Many automated or semi-automated approaches have been defined to achieve this goal. However, such efforts have resulted in classification schemes that are isolated or bespoke, and therefore it is necessary to form a standardised classification method. Sediment wave fields are the ideal platform for this as they maintain consistent morphologies across various spatial scales and influence the distribution of biological assemblages. Here, we apply an object-based image analysis (OBIA) workflow to multibeam bathymetry to compare the accuracy of four classifiers (two multilayer perceptrons, support vector machine, and voting ensemble) in identifying seabed sediment waves across three separate study sites. The classifiers are trained on high-spatial-resolution (0.5 m) multibeam bathymetric data from Cork Harbour, Ireland and are then applied to lower-spatial-resolution EMODnet data (25 m) from the Hemptons Turbot Bank SAC and offshore of County Wexford, Ireland. A stratified 10-fold cross-validation was enacted to assess overfitting to the sample data. Samples were taken from the lower-resolution sites and examined separately to determine the efficacy of classification. Results showed that the voting ensemble classifier achieved the most consistent accuracy scores across the high-resolution and low-resolution sites. This is the first object-based image analysis classification of bathymetric data able to cope with significant disparity in spatial resolution. Applications for this approach include benthic current speed assessments, a geomorphological classification framework for benthic biota, and a baseline for monitoring of marine protected areas.

Seabed sedimentary bedforms (SSBs) are strong indicators of current flow (direction and velocity) and can be mapped in high resolution using multibeam echosounders. Many approaches have been designed to automate the classification of such SSBs imaged in multibeam echosounder data. However, these classification systems only apply a geomorphological contextualisation to the data without making direct assertions on the velocities of benthic currents that form these SSBs. Here, we apply an object-based image analysis (OBIA) workflow to derive a geomorphological classification of SSBs in the Moira Mounds area of the Belgica Mound Province, NE Atlantic through k-means clustering. Cold-water coral reefs as sessile filter-feeders benefit from strong currents are often found in close association with sediment wave fields. This OBIA provided the framework to derive SSB wavelength and wave height, these SSB attributes were used as predictor variables for a multiple linear regression to estimate current velocities. Results show a bimodal distribution of current flow directions and current speed. Furthermore, a 5 k-means classification of the SSB geomorphology exhibited an imprinting of current flow consistency which altered throughout the study site due to the interaction of regional, local, and micro scale topographic steering forces. This study is proof-of-concept for an assessment tool applied to vulnerable marine ecosystems but has wider applications for applied seabed appraisals and can inform management and monitoring practice across a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Deriving spatial patterns of hydrodynamic processes from widely available multibeam echosounder maps is pertinent to many avenues of research including scour predictions for offshore structures such as wind turbines, sediment transport modelling, benthic fisheries, e.g., scallops, cable route and pipeline risk assessment and habitat mapping.