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Mapping of Benthic Habitats of Palau: Project Completion Report
Author(s): Miles Anderson, Analytical Laboratories of Hawaii
NCCOS Center: CCMA
Center Team: Biogeography
Publication Type: Progress Report
Date of Publication: 2007
Reference Information:
Keywords: Palau coral, Palau, coral reef ecosystems, Pacific coral, shallow water benthic habitat mapping
Abstract: 1. Introduction and Background
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) acquired multispectral satellite imagery for the entire archipelago of Palau. The images were used to create maps of the region’s marine resources including coral reefs and other important habitats for fisheries, tourism and other aspects of the coastal economy. Accurate habitat maps are necessary for resource managers to make informed decisions about the protection and use of these areas. Analytical Laboratories of Hawaii LLC (ALH) has been subcontracted to provide mapping and other services to meet the goals of this project.
The primary products of this effort are benthic coral reef habitat maps in geographic information system (GIS) format. The maps are produced by delineating habitat boundaries by visual interpretation from the imagery provided. These maps are generated in GIS format to generate a powerful tool for management of important patterns and trends that are possible only from this intelligent mapping methodology. In all cases, benthic features have been classified using a hierarchical two tiered Coral Reef Habitat Classification Scheme. The scheme has been prepared from consultation, meetings and workshops that included the key coral reef biologists, mapping experts and professionals of the Pacific Island communities. The Coral Reef Habitat Classification Scheme that was developed by NOAA for all islands of the Caribbean and Hawaii was used as a starting point for this work. Subsequent to an intermediate scheme that was developed and used to generate the habitat maps prepared from the NOAA imagery collected during the years 2002 to 2004, comments and suggestions have been incorporated into a new scheme that includes GIS data organized to separate the geolomorphologic substrate structure of the reef system from the biological cover colonizing its surface. For the purpose of this work, habitat is defined by the major and detailed attributes of these two layers.
An integral part of this work includes scientifically sound statistical accuracy estimates of the spatial and thematic content of these coral reef habitat maps. These analyses are presented and conclusions are drawn that can be integrated into long term coral reef mapping objectives.
It has been the goal of this work to map the coral reef habitats of the entire main archipelago of Palau. The work has been completed and is reported on here.
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