The Ocean Mapping Group was established at the University of New Brunswick in 1988 in response to a national need to develop advanced ocean mapping capabilities. The research of the Ocean Mapping Group is focused on developing new and innovative techniques and tools for the management, processing, visualization and interpretation of ocean mapping data. While we define ocean mapping in its broadest sense (including the water column, sea surface and sea bottom), the initial efforts were directed to seafloor mapping, and in particular, towards problems associated with high-volume seafloor bathymetric and imaging systems.

The Ocean Mapping Group is part of the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering at UNB. It draws upon faculty and staff with expertise in the fields of hydrography, geographical information systems, digital image analysis, interactive computer graphics and 3-D data visualization.

Ian Church

Principal Investigator / Assistant Professor, P.Eng.

John Hughes Clarke

Adjunct Professor

David Wells

Professor Emeritus

Susan Haigh

Honourary Research Associate

Jonathan Beaudoin

Honourary Research Associate

Aixue Wang

Visiting Scholar (Wuhan University)

Current Students and Researchers

Select Recent Publications

Church, I., L. Quas, M. Williamson, 2017, Multibeam Water Column Data Processing Techniques to Facilitate Scientific Bio-Acoustic Interpretation, Proceedings of the US  Hydrographic Conference 2017, 11pp.

Hughes Clarke, J. E. (2016). First wide-angle view of channelized turbidity currents links migrating cyclic steps to flow characteristics. Nature Communications, 7(May), 11896. http://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11896

Crawford, A.J., P. Wadhams, T. Wagner, A. Stern, E. Abrahamsen, I. Church, R. Bates,  K. Nicholls, 2016, Journey of an Arctic ice island. Oceanography, 29(2), http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2016.30.

McHugh, C., I. Church, M.S. Kim, and D. Maggio, 2015, Comparison of horizontal and vertical resolvable resolution between repetitive multibeam surveys using different kinematic GNSS methods. International Hydrographic Review, No. 14, November 2015, pp. 7-18

I. Church, 2014,  Modelling the Estuarine Circulation of the Port of Saint John: Applications in Hydrographic Surveying, Doctoral Thesis, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB.

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Recent Projects

Port of Saint John Research Project – Develop a Better Understanding of Sedimentation, Circulation and Ecology of the Saint John Harbour

CONCORDE – CONsortium for oil spill exposure pathways in COastal River-Dominated Ecosystems

Mactaquac – Upper Saint John River Mapping

Squamish Prodelta Experiment 

See all projects…