System and method for determining water bottom sediment acoustic properties using a pile driver acoustic source

A method for mapping acoustic properties of water bottom sediments, comprising:

• penetrating a first piling into the water bottom sediments at a first location of a plurality of locations associated with a structural foundation;
• inserting a first distributed acoustic sensor adjacent to the first penetrated piling;
• penetrating a second piling into the water bottom sediments at a second location of the plurality of locations;
• detecting acoustic signals at the first distributed acoustic sensor while penetrating the second piling, the detecting acoustic signals indexed to a depth of the second penetrated piling as the second piling is driven;
• inserting a second distributed acoustic sensor adjacent to the second driven piling;
• repeating at each remaining one of the plurality of locations, penetrating a piling, detecting acoustic signals at each of the inserted distributed acoustic sensors and inserting a distributed acoustic sensor adjacent each penetrated piling;
• and
• using the detected acoustic signals to generate a map of acoustic properties of the water bottom sediments in a volume bounded by the plurality of locations, the acoustic properties comprising at least attenuation excluding effects of acoustic diffractors in the water bottom sediments.