The Benefits of Using Cloud Computing to Automate Aquatic Habitat Mapping with Acoustics

We will explore the benefits of using cloud computing software and processes to automate bathymetric and vegetation mapping while forming a warehouse of historical aquatic habitat data online.  By collecting acoustic data using low cost/high tech depth finders and providing cloud processing to automate the output, we can eliminate a need for the hours and costs associated with generating habitat data with a wide range of methods.  By removing the human element of processing raw acoustics, these Systems support a new protocol of recording data every time you are on the water in order to build a uniform and historical database of aquatic environments.   In addition, by processing the data in the cloud and warehousing in a secure account online, we greatly increase the ability to share uniform habitat data across agencies and organizations for historical comparisons.   These platforms will allow us to expand into a consumer model with a different feature set appealing to anglers that incentivize them to upload acoustic files for trend analytics, patterning, and personal bathymetric mapping of the areas they fish.  This crowd sourcing effort will lead to a single source of truth for uniform and historical lake habitat data for early detection and rapid response