Uncertainty Estimation

[brian-r-calder]

OpenVBI's Dataset object has space for an uncertainty tuple per observation, but there isn't a well understood and accepted method to fill it in. Multibeam, bathymetric lidar, and other survey-grade bathymetric data now routinely have uncertainty estimated using models (e.g., Hare-Godin-Mayer, Lurton-Augustin, cBLUE) or empirical estimates.

Volunteer data doesn't yet generally benefit from these models. But it should. Therefore:

• Provide interfaces to CIDCO Uncertainty Library for VBI to allow uncertainty attribution for observations as part of Dataset object, and/or
• Provide interface to a modified Hare-Godin-Mayer model cut down to be specific to single-beam observations, and/or
• Add empirical uncertainty estimation (e.g., as with the Trusted Community Bathymetry model).