Standard Presentation (15 mins) - Edits Required Australian Marine Sciences Association 2022

Updates, Innovations, And Analysis Of The Australian And Global Coral Reef Habitat Maps. (#298)

Chris Roelfsema 1 2 , Mitchell Lyons 1 2 , Kathrine Markey 1 2 , Chantel Say 1 2 , Carolina Castro Sanguino 1 2 , Eva Kovacs 1 2 , Stuart Phinn 1 2 , Helen Fox 2 3 , Brianna Bambic 2 4 , Paulina Gestner 2 4 , Greg Asner 2 4 , Nicholas Murray 5
  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Remote Sensing Research Centre, University of Queensland, St.Lucia, QUEENSLAND, Australia
  2. Allen Coral Atlas Partnership, Tempe, Arizona, United States
  3. Coral Reef Alliance, Oakland, Calinfornia, United States
  4. Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States
  5. College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, QLD, Australia

Reliable and informative maps of coral reef habitat not only capture the visible wonder of our planet but can extend our scientific capability to understand and manage reefs. In 2021 high thematic and spatial resolution habitat maps were completed for shallow coral reefs globally through the Allen Coral Atlas and a concurrent project fine tuned the input data and mapping process for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) through GBRMPA. In this talk we review the process of developing the geomorphic and benthic maps of shallow coral reefs for the GBR, Australia and Globally. We discuss a) the raw inputs, satellite data, physical properties (depth, slope, waves) and reference data received from the community, b)  the classification scheme, c) the machine learning and object based editing and d) the validation. We then present improvements of the 2021 maps through innovations, and new clean-up approaches supported by expert feedback and the development of a new reef extent map. The resulting data can be used for estimating coral habitat which provide important information for supporting conservation and management locally and globally.

  1. Lyons, M, CM. Roelfsema, EV. Kennedy, EM. Kovacs, R Borrego-Acevedo, K Markey, M Roe, DM. Y, DL. Harris, SR. Phinn, G Asner, J Li, DE. Knapp, NS. Fabina, KLarsen, D Traganos, NJ. Murray (2020) Mapping the world's coral reefs using a global multiscale earth observation framework. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.157
  2. Roelfsema, C.M.; Lyons, M.B.; Castro-Sanguino, C.; Kovacs, E.M.; Callaghan, D.; Wettle, M.; Markey, K.; Borrego-Acevedo, R.; Tudman, P.; Roe, M.; Kennedy, E.V.; Gonzalez-Rivero, M.; Murray, N.; Phinn, S.R. How Much Shallow Coral Habitat Is There on the Great Barrier Reef? Remote Sens. 2021, 13, 4343. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13214343