{
  "abstract": "Seabed-sediment classification from multibeam echo-sounder data is constrained by sparse, class-imbalanced ground truth, particularly for coarse gravel, which pixel-based classifiers struggle to resolve. This study maps the seabed sediments of the southwestern East Sea (Sea of Japan) continental shelf using object-based sample augmentation, which propagates field-sample labels across Simple Linear Iterative Clustering superpixels of calibrated backscatter and bathymetry. Under 20-seed repeated random cross-validation, object-based augmentation raised the rare-class (Gravel) F1-score from 0.036 for a pixel-only baseline to 0.436, and the gain persisted under spatial-block cross-validation, a within-scene spatial-robustness test on spatially held-out sites (0.024 to 0.311), where SLIC exceeded all tested fixed-neighborhood scales. These rare-class estimates rest on only eight independent Gravel field sites and should be interpreted in that context. Oversampling the original rare-class anchors to the same training size recovered only a minority of this gain, indicating that most of the improvement arose from newly propagated pixels rather than anchor replication. Feature-space and multi-sample diagnostics provided empirical support for the within-superpixel label-propagation assumption. The resulting gravel–sand–mud map reproduces a depth-controlled, fining-offshore facies pattern consistent with hydraulic sorting on the narrow, river-fed shelf. An expert-interpreted Rock assessment further showed that exposed bedrock could not be reliably separated from coarse gravel at an acceptable trade-off in the available single-frequency-per-location backscatter–bathymetry feature space. Overall, the approach recovers rare coarse-substrate facies that pixel-based mapping largely misses while identifying the limits of acoustic-only substrate discrimination, thereby strengthening the baseline seabed-sediment maps that underpin benthic habitat mapping, marine spatial planning, and seabed engineering.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Resource Exploration and Development Research Division, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), Daejeon, Republic of Korea",
    "Research Institute, Marine Research Corporation, Busan, Republic of Korea",
    "Ocean Climate Response & Ecosystem Research Department, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), Busan, Republic of Korea"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Bo-Yeon Yi"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Moonsoo Lim"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Sungil Kim"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Yuri Kim"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Eun-Je Jeong"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Sunhee Hwang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Seonghoon Moon"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3mc9z2gdy0cnj.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3389/fmars.2026.1974481",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2026.1974481/full",
  "id": "3mc9z2gdy0cnj",
  "issns": [
    "2296-7745"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2026.1974481",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "lcc",
      "Q"
    ],
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      "lcc",
      "QH1-199.5"
    ],
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      "openalex",
      "1910|Underwater Acoustics Research"
    ]
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  "openalex": "W7223851937",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2026.1974481/pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-27",
  "publisher": "Frontiers Media S.A.",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3mc9z2gdy0cnj.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T14:21:48Z",
      "native_id": "0e76e0da235649c6bcb8d581df6c4f06",
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      "url": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2026.1974481"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "openalex:1910|Underwater Acoustics Research",
      "subfield": "oceanography"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Object-based sample augmentation improves rare-class seabed sediment mapping from multibeam data in the East Sea (Sea of Japan)",
  "title_text": "Object-based sample augmentation improves rare-class seabed sediment mapping from multibeam data in the East Sea (Sea of Japan)",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-31T14:21:48Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3mc9z2gdy0cnj",
  "venue": "Frontiers in Marine Science",
  "versions": []
}