Basic physical concepts in optical remote sensing for mapping benthic coastal habitats

The use of remote sensing is well established to map coastal environments due to its advantages with regard to traditional field methods. Among these advantages, it can be mentioned that these techniques are non-invasive, allow studying large areas, mapping inaccessible zones as well as provide a repetitive cover of a target area. However, despite its potential to map benthic habitats, the use of remote sensing in aquatic environments presents some limitations such as the atmospheric perturbation, the absorption by the water column at some wavelengths, the effect of wind speed and solar elevation, the noise and resolution of the sensor, etc. Taking these limitations into account would avoid, in some occasions, unexpected results or waste certain resources. For this reason, this manuscript tries to gather the basic physical processes that should be considered when it comes to use remote sensing in the mapping of benthic coastal habitats.