International Seabed Geomorphology Mapping Working Group
The International Seabed Geomorphology Mapping Working Group (ISGM) is a collaboration between geoscience agencies in the United Kingdom, Norway, Ireland and Australia. The group have been collaborating since 2016 to develop a novel marine and coastal system that supports standardised geomorphic classification and mapping by a broad range of geoscientists. Users can download open-access reports and GIS tools to apply the method to their own datasets, and we invite users to provide us with their feedback to ensure the continual improvement of the approach. Contact emails are provided in the ISGM reports linked below.
ISGM have developed a two-part seabed geomorphology classification system that supports geoscientists to apply standardised terminology and mapping tools to their own coastal and marine datasets:
- Part 1. The Morphology report (Dove et al., 2020) defines and illustrates a list of 42 Morphology Features that can be used to classify bathymetry data. This list of terms, and their definitions, were primarily derived from the International Hydrographic Organization’s (IHO) Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN) B6 publication.
- Part 2. The Geomorphology report (Nanson et al., 2023) structures hundreds of geomorphic unit terms into a standardised framework that provides consistency between 11 overlapping Setting (Fluvial, Coastal, Marine, Glacial, Solid Earth) and Process (Current-induced, Biogenic, Mass movement, Fluid Flow, Karstic, Anthropogenic) categories, and provides a glossary for these terms. These terms and definitions are sourced from the scientific literature.
This two-part approach supports relatively rapid morphological classification of seabed bathymetry (Part 1 – Morphology) and seeks to constrain the inherent uncertainty of subsurface facies interpretation and prediction to a second step (Part 2 – Geomorphology).
