Effect of Density of Measurement Points Collected from a Multibeam Echosounder on the Accuracy of a Digital Terrain Model

Digital terrain models (DTMs), finding a wide range of applications in the exploration of water areas, are mainly created on the basis of bathymetric data from a multibeam echosounder. The estimation of DTM accuracy dependent on the choice of the survey parameters is difficult due to the lack of reference surface. These authors have developed the methodology of simulation called virtual survey, which enables examining how various parameters of the echosounder, survey and DTM construction algorithms affect the errors of the created models. They are aimed at precise estimation of the model accuracy and the optimization of depth measurement work. The article includes the results of the examination of the effect of parameters determining the density of measurement points on the accuracy of the obtained GRID model. It has been proved that a significant reduction of recorded data density leads to only a slight increase in the modeling error, which makes the bathymetric survey much more cost-effective.