ARTICLE IN PRESS

Quaternary International 130 (2005) 153161

Acoustical classication of the bottom sediments in the

southern Baltic Sea
Jaros"aw Te)gowski
! ow
Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstanc ! Warszawy 55, 81-712 Sopot, Poland
Available online 7 July 2004

Abstract

The basic relationship is described between the parameters of backscattered acoustic signal and the seabed type in the Polish
Economic Zone of the Baltic Sea. The properties of the bottom backscattered signal were investigated using a single frequency
narrow beam echosounder working at a frequency of 30 kHz. For approximately 15,000 averaged echo pulses acquired in the survey
area, calculations of integral backscattering strength, spectral width and Hausdorf fractal dimension were performed and the
correlation of the results with bottom characteristic features were evaluated. The chosen set of echo parameters is a good descriptor
of the sea bottom sediments and may be used for classication procedures. Having applied cluster analysis to the data sets of
averaged echo envelopes, it was possible to classify them into four groups. The groups corresponding to the four cluster centers were
assigned to a given type of sediment. The surcial sediment types most often occurring in the southern Baltic are: muddy deposits
(deeper part of the study area), clay, ne and medium grained sand, coarse sand or gravel.
r 2004 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction suitable results that can be used as a basis of the

Acoustic methods are very useful for seaoor
characterization and surveying and are presently the
subject of extensive research. To develop a reliable
seabed classication method, the main problem is to
dene the category and number of parameters of the
received echo, that may be used to describe the
characteristic bottom features, e.g. material type,
morphology, layer structure, with a high level of
certainty and accuracy.
The acoustic methods are non-invasive and more cost
effective than geological coring techniques. In addition,
these methods provide capability for fast bottom
sediment mapping. The type of bottom sediments can
be an indicator of the biological production intensity
(Or"owski, 1989). The soft muddy sediments in Southern
Baltic Sea, which can be recognized acoustically, are
areas of intense biological activity.
The inconvenience and main limitation of the acoustic
methods lies in the complicated inverse theory of
acoustical wave scattering on a rough and layered
seaoor. The previous theoretical models do not give
E-mail address: tegowski@iopan.gda.pl (J. Te)gowski).
inversion procedure. This is a reason for further
extensive research on this technique.
The acoustical methods of bottom sediment recogni-
tion are developed utilizing various acoustic and
numerical techniques. The methods using echo-signal
data from a single-beam echosounder can involve
several approaches such as:
* Measurement of energy ratio of the rst and second
bottom echo (Or"owski, 1984; Chivers et al., 1990;
Dyer et al., 1997).
* Multidimensional analysis of a large set of bottom
echo parameters (Quester Tangent, 19951998).
* Comparison of measured and theoretically modeled
echo patterns in the time domain (Pouliquen and
Lurton, 1992; Birn et al., 1994; Sternlicht and de
Moustier, 1997) or in a wavelet transform domain
(Caiti and Zoppoli, 1998).
* Application of fractal properties of the echo envelope
(Te)gowski and ubniewski, 2000).
* Analysis of a set of values of acoustic and statistical
parameters of the echo envelope using cluster analysis
(Te)gowski and Klusek, 1999), articial neural net-
works or fuzzy logic (Macio"owska et al., 1998; Dung
and Stepnowski, 2000).

1040-6182/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2004.04.038
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
154 J. Te)gowski / Quaternary International 130 (2005) 153161
The main goal of this paper is an attempt of complex
acoustical characterization of surface sediments in the
southern Baltic. From the large set of energetic,
statistical, spectral and geometrical parameters that
describes the bottom echo signal, the most essential
parameters have been selected. The rst parameter, the
integral backscattering strength is the logarithmic
measure of the energy value integrated for the total
echo-signal duration. The next one is fractal dimension
of the echo envelopethe geometrical parameter
describing a roughness of the echo signal. The use of
fractal dimension is based on the assumption that layers
of bottom sediments have a fractal structure, which is
transferred onto the shape of the acoustic echo. In the
computation of fractal dimension, the wavelet analysis
method was used. The third parameter, i.e. spectral
width, describes the concentration of the spectral
power density around the mean frequency of the echo
spectrum. Spectral width links both energetic and geo-
metrical features of the backscattered signal.
The qualitative measurements and the interpretation
of bottom backscattered signal properties in the south-
ern Baltic Sea have been insufciently dealt with up to
now. The measurements, which covered the entire Polish
Economical Zone of the Baltic Sea, were performed in
19912001 by the author (Te)gowski and Klusek 1999;
Te)gowski and ubniewski, 2000). Using a ship-mounted
echosounder in several selected points in the southern
Baltic Sea, studies of backscattering at 38 and 120 kHz
were performed by Or"owski (1984) and Klusek (1990).
The results presented here concentrate on the
acoustical parameters of backscattered acoustic signals
from the bottom of southern Baltic Sea. There is no
detailed discussion of the geological properties of the
bottom.
2. Data acquisition and signal processing
In the last decade, about 10,000 km of acoustical
transects in the southern Baltic Sea area were made.
Bottom reverberation measurements were performed
onboard of r/v OCEANIA using a single-frequency
narrow beam echosounder ELAC LAZ-4700 working at
a frequency of 30 kHz. The sounding pulses of 0.30.6
ms duration were emitted in 64 pulse sequences. The
envelopes of the bottom reverberation signals were
sampled in the range of 39 kHz and stored together
with the information about the echosounder adjust-
ments, time and ship position obtained from the GPS
system. The acoustic transducers were mounted in a V-
n body, which was towed at a depth of 2 m with the
ship velocity of 23 knots. During measurements in
adverse weather conditions some instability of the towed
system occurred. The rst stage of data processing was
therefore to remove the inuence of the V-n body pitch
and roll. Special data processing, which reduces errors
of a swaying beam, has been proposed and applied. This
selection procedure resulted in the elimination of over
70% of disturbed pulses. The additional problem was
the elimination of the bottom slope effects. Changes in
the bottom depth can appear within the 64-echo
sequence as a result of variation in the echo return
times. Therefore, a bottom level alignment procedure
was needed. The distance to the bottom in selected
pulses was aligned to the shortest one in the given block.
Subsequently, the averaging process was applied to the
sets of the selected pings to receive the best echo proles,
which were then used in calculation of the bottom
parameters. A detailed description of the data pre-
processing procedures has been published in an earlier
paper by the author (Te)gowski and ubniewski, 2000).
3. Bottom echo parameters
A model of the volume scattering of the acoustic wave
on the bottom was assumed. This approach can be
explained from the fact that except the sand zones, the
layer of sediments taking part in backscattering has a
thickness equal to tens of the spatial lengths of the
sounding pulse and has to be treated as a volume
scattering medium. This model is more appropriate for
the applied signal frequency of 30 kHz than the surface
scattering model previously used by ubniewski and
Stepnowski (1998).
For the acoustical description of southern Baltic
sediments, a set of three parameters was chosen as
follows:
(i) The integral backscattering strength Sbs (logarith-
mic measure of the energy value integrated for the
total echo-signal duration), which can be expressed
(Urick 1975)
Z z2
Sbs 10 log sv z dz; 1
z1
where sv is the volume backscattering co-
efcient calculated from sonar equation, z1 and z2
are limits of the depth interval. This parameter is
well veried as a bottom hardness index, but
provides no information about the sediment
structure.
(ii) Spectral width parameter n2 denoting the concen-
tration of the spectral power density around the
mean frequency $ : It is dened as follows (Clough
and Penzin, 1975)
m1
$ ;
m0
m0 m2
n2  1; 2
m21
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Te)gowski / Quaternary International 130 (2005) 153161
where
Z N
mr or So do 3 log Nr
0 r-0
are the spectral moments of the r order, So is
the power spectral density and o denotes the
echo signal envelope frequency. When the spectrum
is extremely narrow (the total energy of
backscattered signal is concentrated around one
frequency $ ), parameter n becomes a small value,
i.e. n2 -0: For the opposite case, when the
spectral energy is broadly distributed among
frequencies, n2 increases. The spectral width para-
meter links the energetic and geometric properties
of echo signal.
(iii) The Hausdorff fractal dimension of echo envelope
based on wavelet transformation.
The shape of man-made objects is properly described
by Euclidean geometry. For such objects as cones,
rectangles, etc. we can nd simple algebraic formulas
that described some deterministic parameters like size
and scale. The natural shapes are usually more
complicated. The form of trees, mountains or corru-
gated sea surface has a wide range of scales and simple
classical geometry tools are not adequate to parameter-
ize them. On the contrary, the fractal geometry
introduced by Mandelbrot (1982) is appropriate to
characterize a large majority of natural forms.
In fractal geometry the regular fractals are dened as a
scale-invariant (self-similar) geometric set, which
means that it can be described as a union of exact
rescaled copies of itself. In the nature, usually, we
observe random fractals with a statistical version of self-
afnity. An example of that kind of fractal is the
envelope of bottom backscattered signal. Yamamoto
(1996) gives a detailed description of sound scattering by
bottom sediments. He has assumed that scattering
occurs on volume inhomogeneities, which implies
variability of density and sound velocity in the
sediments. The results of experimental studies of the
structure of bottom sediments allow a description of
density and sound velocity variability using the correla-
tion functions. Their spectra are characterised by power
laws, which is the attribute of fractal geometry. The
sound backscattering by the oceanic bottom obeys
fractal laws.
The method presented in this article is based on
hypothesis that the layers of bottom sediments have a
fractal structure, which is transferred onto the shape of
the acoustic echo. The computed fractal dimension of
the backscattered signal envelope can be considered as a
quantitative estimation of its complexity.
One of the fractal dimensions, the so-called Hausdorff
dimension (Hastings and Sugihara, 1994), is presented
below. For a subset X of Euclidean space it is dened as
155
the limit
D lim ; 4
log r
where N(r) denotes the smallest number of open balls of
radius r needed to cover subset X; an open ball B(p,
r)={x: dist(x, p) o r}, where dist(x, p) is the distance
between points x and p. In the case of a one-variable
fractal function, the Hausdorf dimension D has a value
between 1 and 2. For smooth echoes from acoustically
highly reective sands and gravels, the value of fractal
dimension approaches 1. For more corrugated echoes
from layered, soft muddy sediments the value of D
approaches 2. In the case of an echo envelope, which
consists of a nite number of samples, the Hausdorf
dimension cannot be calculated as the limit at r-0: It is
estimated for a scale range [r1, r2], within which the echo
envelope is believed to have fractal properties.
Because it is not easy to calculate the Hausdorff
dimension of a given gure from the above denition
(4), an equivalent method must be used. The methods of
fractal dimension measurement for experimental data
have been intensively developed (Rothrock and Thorn-
dike, 1980; Wadhams and Davis, 1994; Te)gowski and
ubniewski, 2000). In the previous publications, this
author used two indirect methods based on the
autocorrelation function for the echo envelope and the
most popular Fourier power spectrum method.
The precise calculation of fractal dimension requires a
big set of samples. This condition is not perfectly
satised for short smooth echoes from a hard sandy
bottom. The method of determining the Hurst exponent
(and following fractal dimension) using the wavelet
transform (Simonsen and Hansen, 1998) gives satisfac-
tory results.
4. Afne transformation
Let us assume that the echo envelope is the one-
dimensional function y(x) and self-afne fractal objects
are invariant under an afne transformation
x-lx; 5a
y-lH y; 5b
where H is the Hurst exponent expressing the corruga-
tion of y(x).
The combination of both transformations has the
form
yxDlH ylx: 6
The Hurst exponent H has values from 0 for as
extremely corrugated function y(x) to 1 for smooth y(x).
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156 J. Te)gowski / Quaternary International 130 (2005) 153161

5. Wavelet transform The wavelet transform of function yx is expressed by

relation
Standard Fourier transforms breaks down a signal
into constituent components of different frequency. In W yla; lbDl1=2H W ya; b: 12
transforming to the frequency domain, time information The arithmetic averaging procedure with respect to the
is lost. The transformation result does not indicate when variable b translation parameter yields
a signal component of particular frequency occurred.
This information is especially crucial when a stationary W ya /jW ya; bjSb : 13
signal is the subject of signicant uctuations. The
The result of applying this procedure to the wavelet
wavelet transform overcomes the limitations of the
transform of function y(x) becomes
Fourier transformation. The main idea of this transfor-
mation is the breaking up of the signal into shifted and W ylaDl1=2H W ya: 14
scaled version of the mother wavelet c(x;a,b)
  The algorithm of Hurst exponent computation of
1 xb bottom backscattered signal y(x) is as follows: (i)
cx; a; b p
c : 7
a a computation of wavelet transform of y(x), (ii) computa-
tion of averaged wavelet coefcient W[y](a), (iii) Hurst
The continuous wavelet analysis of signal yt in domain exponent H and subsequently, the Hausdorff dimension
x is dened, for a mother wavelet c (x;a,b), by a wavelet D can be calculated from the slope of a loglog plot of
transform pair W[y](a) versus a using a linear regression algorithm. The
Z N   hypothesis of the fractality of the function y(x) will be
1 xb
ca; b yx p c dx; 8a true, when the loglog plot of W[y](a) as the function of
N a a
a for some range of parameter a ts with a straight line.
Z Z   Mandelbrot (1982) proved that H is related to the
N N
1 1 x  b da db Hausdorff dimension of a graph of y(t) via the formula
yx ca; b p c ; 8b
Cc N N a a a2
D 2  H: 15
where a is a scale parameter controlling the function
spread and b is a translation parameter.The normal- Fig. 1 is an example of the estimation of fractal
ization constant Cc depends on the Fourier transform dimension using the procedure described above. Fig. 1a
#
Co of the mother wavelet c(x;a,b): shows the echo envelope of signal scattered on a layer of
marine clayey sand. The result of wavelet transform of
Z N # 2 this envelope is seen in the bottom plot of Fig. 1. In the
jCoj
Cc do: 9 transformation, Daubechies (Db7) wavelets were used.
0 o
Fig. 1b shows a graphic method of deriving the H
In the next stage of this derivation, the method of exponent. Using the best-t method (straight lines in
fractal dimension computation based on the wavelet Fig. 1b), the value of fractal dimension DDb7=1.38 was
transformation is presented. obtained from Eq. (15). The hypothesis of the fractality
of the echo envelope shape is proven by the fact that the
loglog plot of W[y](a) versus a (scaling parameter) is
6. Fractal dimension based on the averaged wavelet close to the best-t straight line. The presented method
coefcient method has good averaging properties, which make it possible to
compute the Hurst exponent for a data set containing a
The wavelet transformation of the self-afne function small number of samples.
y(x) (Eq. (6)) is expressed by the relation
W yxa; bDW lH ylxa; b: 10
7. Results
After the change of variable and transformation,
Simonsen and Hansen (1998) obtained 7.1. Acoustic properties of southern Baltic Sea sediments
W yxa; b
Z   The presence of offshore shallow water areas, and
N
xb
Da 1=2
l ylxc H
dx basin plains separated by ridges, is a characteristic
N a feature of the southern Baltic Sea region. In a large part
Z N  0 
x  lb of the investigated area, there are sediment layers with
l1=2H la1=2 yx0 c dx0 specic properties such as the deposits rich in organic
N la
materials. The deeps are covered by acoustically soft
l1=2H W ylxla; lb: 11 semi-uid clays and silts. Rare, acoustically low
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Te)gowski / Quaternary International 130 (2005) 153161 157

Fig. 1. Example of the estimation of fractal dimension: (a) echo envelope of signal scattered on marine clayey sand, (b) graphic method for deriving
the Hurst exponent H.

reective peats are present in the Gulf of Gdansk. ! A strength Sbs, spectral width n2 ; fractal dimension DDb7)
large majority of the shallow sea deposits consists of
sands, gravel and stones.
The example of an acoustical transect running from
the coastal sand area to the middle of the Bornholm
Deep where the seabed consists of muddy sediments is
shown in Fig. 2. The geological description of this
transect is based on the Geological Map of the Baltic
Sea Bottom (Ko"obrzeg and Rnne-Nex sheet, 1992).
The transect of the length of 58 km starts at a point
within the coastal sand accumulation area in the
position of 54
22.2810 N, 15
35.1850 E at the depth of a value of 5 and a fractal dimension value of 1.83. The
26 m. The depths were calculated assuming a constant
sound propagation value of 1460 m/s. At this location
the bottom consists of marine ne grained sand
impenetrable for 30 kHz acoustical waves. This class of
sediments extends to a depth of 57 m. The seabed in the
next part of transect to the depth of 61 m consists of
marine silty sand deposited on silty clay in a layer which
varies. In the depth interval of 6166 m, the bottom is
covered by marine clayey silt lying on till. From the
depth of 6670 m there is marine silty clay and from the
depth of 70 m to the end of the transect at the position
54
53.6060 N, 15
35.5950 E the sediment is marine clay.
In the nal part of the acoustical prole, at the depth of
73 m, ne-grained sand is found.
Below the acoustical prole, variations in echo
parameters along the transect (integral backscattering
are shown. Changes of acoustical properties of the
sediments along the transect are clearly visible. In the
coastal zone, in the area of massive sandy deposits, the
integral backscattering strength reaches a value of
9 dB. The spectral width and fractal dimension for
short and smooth echo envelopes have small values (n2
tends to 0 and DDb7 to 1). An opposite trend is observed
for the siltyclay sediments in deeper regions of the
investigated area where the integral backscattering
strength decreases to 23 dB. The spectral width reaches
large values of these parameters are the result of volume
scattering due to at the layered structure of sediments.
The spatial distributions of integral bottom back-
scattering strength Sbs, spectral width n2, fractal dimen-
sion DDb7 determined at 30 kHz within the Polish
economic zone are presented on the maps (Fig. 3). The
integral bottom backscattering strength is a parameter,
which represents the integral reverberation character-
istic of the measurement point of the bottom. The
integrated depth changes from around 1 m in sands to
40 m in semi-uid silty sediments. The map of Sbs values
reects trends in the sediment prole. Shallow at areas
covered with a layer of sand or gravel are characterized
by values of Sbs>10 dB. In areas of thin sand layers
overlying silt or mixed with silt, the reverberation level is
around 15 dB. By contrast, Sbs values in deep areas
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
158 J. Te)gowski / Quaternary International 130 (2005) 153161
Fig. 2. A selected acoustical transect in the southern Baltic Sea and variations in echo parameters along the transect (integral backscattering strength
Sbs, spectral width n2 ; fractal dimension DDb7 in succession). Values in squared volts are proportional to the echo energy. Geographical coordinates
of point A54
53.6060 N, 15
35.5950 E and B54
15.9110 N, 15
35.6490 E.
decrease below 20 dB and may approach 30 dB in
some cases.
The spatial distribution of spectral width (Fig. 3b)
denotes the concentration of the spectral power density
around the mean frequency of the echo-signal spectrum.
For short and smooth echo envelopes characteristic for
sandy areas, the spectral width does not exceed 2 and in
large parts of this area it is close to 0. In this case, the
total energy of backscattered signal is concentrated
around a single frequency $ : The opposite situation is
! and Bornholm
observed in the plain parts of the Gdansk
Deeps. The value of spectral width achieves 5 and
corresponds to the case when spectral energy is broadly
distributed among frequencies. The values of spectral
width distributed between 2 and 5 correspond to the
backscatter from mixture of sandy, silty and clayey
bottom.
The last map (Fig. 3c) shows the spatial distribution
of Hausdorff fractal dimension DDb7 of echo the
envelope based on wavelet transformation. For compu-
tation of this parameter, the Daubechies wavelets were
used. The value of the fractal dimension of the echo
envelope carries information about the horizontally
layered structure of sediments. For sandy sediments,
where sounding pulses do not much penetrate the
seabed, the echo is short and smooth (Fig. 2). In such
a case, the fractal dimension has a relatively small value,
which does not exceed 1.2. For siltyclay sediments with
a greater acoustic penetration, the layered structure is
seen in the echo envelope (Fig. 1b) and fractal
dimension has higher values of up to 1.85.
7.2. Classification of sediment types
For purposes of sea bottom-type classication, the K-
MEAN algorithm of clustering was used. At the
beginning of the classication procedure, the algorithm
nds four random centers in the three-dimensional space
of echo-signal parameters. In the next steps, the
algorithm moves objects between clusters to achieve
the minimization of variability inside clusters and the
maximization of variability between clusters. The
iteration process nds the maximal distances between
the three-dimensional centers appropriate to the typical
types of southern Baltic sediments.
The classication procedure was applied to the
bottom area located between the southern Baltic coast
and the middle of Bornholm Deep for 1244 averaged
bottom backscattered signals. Fig. 4 presents histograms
of integral backscattering strength Sbs, spectral width n2
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
J. Te)gowski / Quaternary International 130 (2005) 153161 159

Fig. 3. The distribution of (a) integral backscattering strength Sbs, (b) spectral width n2 ; (c) fractal dimension DDb7 of bottom echo envelopes within
the entire Polish economical zone in southern Baltic Sea, obtained by interpolation of values calculated for over 15,000 averaged echoes.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
160 J. Te)gowski / Quaternary International 130 (2005) 153161

Fig. 4. Histograms of integral backscattering strength Sbs, spectral width n2 and fractal dimension DDb7 of bottom echo envelopes for the
classication area.

Table 1 As a result of the classication procedure, a char-

Calculated values of cluster centers corresponding to bottom sediment acterization of the bottom sediments along the acous-
classes
tical transects (Fig. 5) is presented. Each symbol (cross,
Cluster number Sbs (dB) n2 Ddb7 triangle, rhombus and square) represents a specied type
1 Muddy deposits 19.8 4.8 1.71 of sediment determined by cluster analysis and has a
2 Clay, clayey silt 17.1 3.3 1.55 location corresponding to the geographical coordinates
3 Fine-grained sand 14.2 2.0 1.32 of the echo-signal measurement.
4 Coarse and medium sand and gravel 7.8 0.4 1.19 The classication procedure was veried by compar-
ison of the results with surface sediment data in the
investigated area obtained from the Geological Map of
the Baltic Sea Bottom (Ko"obrzeg, Rnne-Nex sheet,
1992). The effectiveness of the classication method is
presented in the confusion matrix of classication results
(Table 2) and in the box diagram (Fig. 6). The best
results were obtained for coarse sand and gravel
recognition (91.4%). The silt was recognized in 82.7%
of the cases. The average result of classication was
consistent with the geological map for 88% of the
compared locations.

8. Conclusions

The main objective of this study was to describe a

Fig. 5. The map of acoustical transects in the southern Baltic Sea with
types of sediments obtained from cluster analysis classication.
Crosses correspond to silt, triangles to clay, rhombuses to ne-grained
sand and rectangles to coarse and medium sands and gravel. The line
AB indicates the location of acoustical transect from Fig. 2.
and fractal dimension DDb7 of bottom echo envelopes
for the classication area. The analysis of the histograms
shows that gravel, coarse, ne and medium-grained sand
are the dominating sediments in this region, which is
illustrated by large values of Sbs and small values of n2
and DDb7. Four bottom-type classes were chosen with
echo-signal parameters as shown in Table 1.
method for complex acoustical characterization of
southern Baltic sediments. For realization of this goal,
the three basic parameters have been chosen: integral
backscattering strength, spectral width and fractal
dimension of the echo envelope. This set is a good
indicator of the seabed type in the investigated area. The
specic parameters describe different features of the
seaoor, such as acoustical hardness, structure and
distribution of sediment layers. The presented method of
fractal dimension calculation provides useful averaging
properties, for determining the Hurst exponent for short
echo envelopes using a small number of samples. In the
southern Baltic Sea, the values calculated by the new
fractal dimension method of echo envelopes varied
between 1.83 for mud and 1.09 for gravel. The spectral
width varies between 0 for sandy sediments and 5 for
muds and clays. The integral backscattering strength
ranges from 3 dB for coastal sands and gravels to
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J. Te)gowski / Quaternary International 130 (2005) 153161
Table 2
Confusion matrix of classication results
True class Coarse sand, gravel (%) Fine-grained sand (%)
Coarse sand, gravel 91.4 7.8
Fine-grained sand 4.9 88.1
Clay 0.0 5.9
Silt 0.0 0.2
Rows: true class; columns: classications.
Fig. 6. Box diagram of the classication results. The percentage of
total correctly classied echoes is 88%.
26 dB for mud. The proposed classication method
based on the cluster analysis yields correct results with
an accuracy of 88% and is comparable to other
methods, which use larger number of input parameters.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Jacek Piskozub for some valuable
suggestions.
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