 Prof. Philippe BLONDEL, University of Bath, United Kingdom
Personal profile: Senior Lecturer, Department of Physics, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom
Philippe BLONDEL is lecturing Physics and Environmental Sciences at the University of Bath in the UK. He was educated in France, with a PhD in Physics from University Paris-VII. He worked in France, the US and the United Kingdom. His research focuses on the many uses of underwater acoustics to explore and monitor the marine environment, using active instruments like sonars and passive monitoring of ambient sounds.
His research includes experimental laboratory activities, building new instruments or testing new approaches, and validating them at sea. He has sailed in all oceans, except the Antarctic, and his field experience has guided several of his books, including the Handbook of Sidescan Sonar. Research highlights have included the use of multi-aspect sonars to detect and identify buried waste, mapping vegetation with multibeam sonars, imaging geo-hazards around Europe and monitoring the environments around marine renewable energy structures. His current research focuses on the measurement of Arctic soundscapes, and what they tell us about biodiversity, human impacts and climate change.
Presentation title: Acoustic mapping and monitoring of marine habitats
Abstract: Acoustics is the only tool able to map and monitor all marine environments, at scales ranging from mm to km, and for times spanning from a few seconds to many decades. We are increasingly using the oceans and the seabeds, harvesting resources like fish and hydrocarbons, increasing commercial and recreational shipping, but also measuring the effects of climate change and developing marine renewable energies. As we start mapping more places, in more detail, and monitoring human impacts on marine ecosystems, we are creating very large datasets, throwing challenges for data storage, long-term data access, reliable interpretation and comparison between regions and between times. This talk will present some key projects, including the active imaging of environments around offshore renewable energy devices and passive acoustic monitoring of key Arctic regions. |