In the recent past I published a web site whose URL was "ecovis.org". For various reasons, I have closed this web site.

This site contained pages on many subjects of interest to me and my Marine Biology students. One subject of interest to many was the visualization of submarine topography. The subject is somewhat unique because of the special problems in acquiring sufficient bathymetric data. Unlike terrestrial topography, submarine topographic data is not spaced at convenient intervals or grids. Instead, data are acquired by ships of opportunity doing depth soundings or by satellite measurements at locations of interest to a researcher.

Nonetheless, detailed visualization of bathymetry and any surrounding terrain is essential to the understanding of biological processes in the marine environment. Currents and tides are strongly influenced by the shape of the submarine and the surrounding terrestrial terrain. Marine life is more abundant where there are major vertical changes in the submarine terrain because deeper nutrient-rich waters are forced to the surface by currents that interact with the terrain. And, the shape of terrestrial watersheds influences where and how nurient-rich waters flow from the land to the marine environment.

These processes affect the nature and definition of marine life in open waters and in coastal estuaries, or wetlands. It is for these reasons that the subject of marine topographic visualization is very important. The subject is of particular interest to researchers, students, and ecological decision-makers who work on projects in the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortes). Despite heavy abuses by human beings from many countries, life in the Gulf of California has proven to be quite resilient. This resilience is partly due to the submarine topography that causes the upwelling of nutrients and the influence of coastal watersheds that are defined by terrestrial topography.

It is my desire to provide 2D and 3D visualizations of the submarine topography and surrounding terrestrial terrain for the Sea of Cortes. I hope that my efforts in developing topographic visualizations can be integrated with visualizations of marine life and processes.

To finish this effort, two major tasks are still required:

• The construction of a database that contains bathymetric and terrestrial heightfield data and that can eventually integrate biological and physical data. I have now produced a prototype bathymetry database for the Sea of Cortes. The measured (primarily sonar) depth data come from a number of sources which have been centralized in the GEODAS bathymetry database. In addition, Scripps Institute of Oceanography has collected deep water bathymetry measurements using gravimetric techniques.
• The available depth data are "sparse" -- meaning that there are a great number of geographic locations that have no corresponding bathymetry measurements. Consequently, interpolation methods must be employed to estimate the missing data. Any interpolation scheme must be non-linear for the simple reason that our world is non-linear. My plan is to finish some kriging software that I'm developing. This Windows program will employ kiriging techniques (in a user friendly manner) to estimate the missing depth data points for a GTOPO30 (one arc-second) grid.

There has been some interest in viewing my web pages on the subject of submarine topography. From the original "ecovis" web site, I have extracted web pages that seem to be of interest. They are:

Useful Links: A set of links (URLs) related to the subject of submaring topography.

Data Visualization Notes on matters relating to computer visualization of the marine environment,

Data Development Notes regarding the acquisition and development of bathymetry data.