Geoscience Australia's Semi-automated Morphological Mapping Tools (GA-SaMMT) for Seabed Characterisation

Updated: 2026-08-14

The Geoscience Australia’s Semi-automated Morphological Mapping Tools (GA-SaMMT) were developed as ArcGIS Pro Python tools using Python 3+ to map ten bathymetric high and eight bathymetric low Morphology Features (defined in Dove et al., 2020; cf. Nanson et al., 2023; Nanson et al., 2026). These tools comprise seven toolboxes: <ol type="1"> <li>The BathymetricHigh.pyt toolbox is used to map bathymetric high features, and includes five tools: (i) TPI Tool Bathymetric High; (ii) TPI LMI Tool Bathymetric High; (iii) Openness Tool Bathymetric High; (iv) Contour Tool Bathymetric High; and (v) Pseudo Contour Tool Bathymetric High. </li> <li>The BathymetricLow.pyt toolbox is used to map bathymetric low features, and includes five tools: (i) TPI Tool Bathymetric Low; (ii) TPI CI Tool Bathymetric Low; (iii) Openness Tool Bathymetric Low; (iv) Contour Tool Bathymetric Low; and (v) Pseudo Contour Tool Bathymetric Low. </li> <li>The AddAttributes.pyt toolbox is used to calculate attributes for bathymetric high and low features, and includes six tools: (i) Add Shape Attributes High Tool; (ii) Add Shape Attributes Low Tool; (iii) Add Topographic Attributes High Tool; (iv) Add Topographic Attributes Low Tool; (v) Add Profile Attributes High Tool; and (vi) Add Profile Attributes Low Tool. </li> <li>The AddAttributesFast.pyt toolbox is also used to calculate attributes for bathymetric high and low features, and has the performance advantage (over the AddAttributes.pyt toolbox) of applying multiprocessing capabilities. This version of the toolbox contains six tools: (i) Add Shape Attributes High Tool Fast; (ii) Add Shape Attributes Low Tool Fast; (iii) Add Topographic Attributes Low Tool Fast; (iv) Add Topographic Attributes High Tool Fast; (v) Add Profile Attributes High Tool Fast; and (vi) Add Profile Attributes Low Tool Fast. </li> <li>The ClassificationFeature.pyt toolbox is used to classify bathymetric high and low features into Morphological Feature categories defined in Dove et al. (2020), and includes three tools: (i) Classify Bathymetric High Features Tool; (ii) Classify Bathymetric Low Features Tool; and (iii) Verify Depression Features Tool. </li> <li>The Accessory_Tools.pyt toolbox provides four accessory tools to help the mapping processes: (i) Merge Connected Features Tool; (ii) Connect Nearby Linear Features Tool; (iii) Connect Nearby Linear HF Features Tool; and (iv) Update Feature Boundary Tool. </li> <li>The Surface.pyt toolbox is used to map three classes of Morphological surfaces (Dove et al., 2020), and includes two tools: (i) Morphological Surface Tool Bathymetry; and (ii) Morphological Surface Tool Slope. </li> </ol> The system and data format requirements of these ArcGIS tools are described in the tutorials and user guide that accompany the tools, which also include sampled data and step-by-step examples of their application. Further details of these tools, including their description, graphic illustrations and usages, and python code examples, are also available in their metadata. These tools have been applied to many study areas with real world applications, including those published in Huang et al. (2023) which should be used as the key reference to the GA-SaMMT. <b>References:</b> Dove, D., Nanson, R., Bjarnadóttir, L., Guinan, J., Gafeira, J., Post, A., Dolan, M.; Stewart, H.; Arosio, R, Scott, G. (October, 2020). A two-part seabed geomorphology classification scheme (v.2); Part 1: morphology features glossary. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4075248 Nanson, R., Arosio, R., Gafeira, J., McNeil, M., Dove, D., Bjarnadóttir, L., Dolan, M., Guinan, J., Post, A., Webb, J., & Nichol, S. (2023). A two-part seabed geomorphology classification scheme; Part 2: Geomorphology classification framework and glossary (Version 1.0) (1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7804019 Nanson, R., Arosio, R., Gafeira, J., McNeil, M., Dove, D., Bjarnadóttir, L. R., Dolan, M. F. J., Post, A., Nichol, S., Huang, Z., Guinan, J., Bialik, O. M., Webb, J., Wells, J., & Carroll, A. G. (2026). Coastal to deep-marine geomorphic classification: A standardised framework and review of terms to support globally consistent mapping. Earth-Science Reviews, 276, Article 105439. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2026.105439. Huang, Z., Nanson, R., McNeil, M., Wenderlich, M., Gafeira, J., Post, A, Nichol, S., 2023. Rule-based semi-automated tools for mapping seabed morphology from bathymetry data, Frontiers in Marine Science, 10, 1236788.