St. John Moderate-Depth Benthic Habitat Map derived from Acoustic Imagery

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
St. John Moderate-Depth Benthic Habitat Map derived from Acoustic Imagery
Abstract:
Benthic habitats of the moderate-depth marine environment in and around the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument were mapped using a combination of semi-automated classification and visual interpretation of acoustic imagery. The objective of this effort, conducted by NOAA's Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment - Biogeography Branch in partnership with the U.S. National Park Service (NPS), was to provide spatially-explicit information on the habitat types, biological cover and live coral cover of the moderate-depth area south of St. John.
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    Bryan Costa, NOAA/NOS/NCCOS/CCMA Biogeography Branch, 2009, St. John Moderate-Depth Benthic Habitat Map derived from Acoustic Imagery: NOAA's Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Silver Spring, MD.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details:
    Please use citation for the written document "Moderate-Depth Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands" when using these data.
    This is part of the following larger work.

    Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA), Biogeography Program, 2009, Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands: NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Silver Spring, MD.

    Other_Citation_Details:
    Costa, B.M., L.J. Bauer, T.A. Battista, P.W. Mueller and M.E. Monaco. 2009.Moderate-Depth Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 105. Silver Spring, MD. 55 pp.
  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -64.795781
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -64.658562
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 18.313145
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 18.233189
  3. What does it look like?
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Calendar_Date: 2005
    Time_of_Day: unknown
    Currentness_Reference: ground condition
  5. What is the general form of this data set?
    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data
  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?
      This is a Vector data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):
      • G-Polygon (1283)
    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?
      Grid_Coordinate_System_Name: Universal Transverse Mercator
      Universal_Transverse_Mercator:
      UTM_Zone_Number: 20
      Transverse_Mercator:
      Scale_Factor_at_Central_Meridian: 0.999600
      Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -63.000000
      Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 0.000000
      False_Easting: 500000.000000
      False_Northing: 0.000000
      Planar coordinates are encoded using Coordinate Pair
      Abscissae (x-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 0.000001
      Ordinates (y-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 0.000001
      Planar coordinates are specified in meters
      The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1983.
      The ellipsoid used is Geodetic Reference System 80.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.000000.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.257222.
  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?
    StJohn_ModerateDepth_Benthic_Habitats
    Shapefile attribute table (Source: None)
    FID
    Internal feature number. (Source: ESRI) Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
    Shape
    Feature geometry. (Source: ESRI) Coordinates defining the features.
    UniqueID
    A distinct identifier used to define each unique combination of habitat characteristics (Source: NOAA)
    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:Specific code used for NOAA coral reef habitat maps
    Codeset Source:Described in "Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands" (Zitello et al. 2009)
    Area
    Calculated feature area (sq m) (Source: NOAA) Area of feature in square meters.
    Perimeter
    Calculated feature perimeter (m) (Source: NOAA) Length of feature perimeter in meters
    Zone_
    Geographic Zone (Source: NOAA) Unknown
    Maj_Struct
    Major Geomorphological Structure (Source: Refer to Chapter 1: Benthic Habitat Classification Scheme of "Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands" (Zitello et al. 2009)) Unknown
    Det_Struct
    Detailed Geomorphological Structure (Source: Refer to Chapter 1: Benthic Habitat Classification Scheme of "Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands" (Zitello et al. 2009)) Unknown
    Maj_Cover
    Major Biological Cover (Source: Refer to Chapter 1: Benthic Habitat Classification Scheme of "Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands" (Zitello et al. 2009)) Unknown
    P_Maj_Cov
    Percent Patchiness of Major Biological Cover (Source: Refer to Chapter 1: Benthic Habitat Classification Scheme of "Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands" (Zitello et al. 2009)) Unknown
    P_Coral_Cv
    Percent Cover of Live Coral (Source: Refer to Chapter 1: Benthic Habitat Classification Scheme of "Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands" (Zitello et al. 2009)) Unknown
    Cover
    Concatenation of Major Biological Cover and Percent Major Biological Cover. Used to describe the combination of major biological cover and its percent patchiness of the feature (Source: NOAA) Unknown
    Habitat
    Concatenation of Detailed Geomorphological Structure, Major and Percent Biological Cover and Percent Major Biological Cover, and Live Coral Cover (Source: NOAA) Unknown
    Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:
    Specific details of the attributes and values therein can be found in Chapter 1: Benthic Habitat Classification Scheme of "Moderate-Depth Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands" (Costa et al. 2009).
    Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation:
    Costa, B.M., L.J. Bauer, T.A. Battista, P.W. Mueller and M.E. Monaco. 2009. Moderate-Depth Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 105. Silver Spring, MD. 55 pp.

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)
  2. Who also contributed to the data set?
  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?
    Bryan Costa
    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA), Biogeography Branch
    1305 East West Highway, N-SCI-1, SSMC 4, 9th Floor
    Silver Spring, MD

    301-713-3028 x146 (voice)
    301-713-4384 (FAX)
    bryan.costa@noaa.gov
    Hours_of_Service: 0800 - 1700, Monday to Friday, EST

Why was the data set created?

This product provides a fine-scale assessment of the status, abundance, and distribution of moderate-depth marine habitats south of St. John. The NOAA effort provides the U.S. National Park Service with increased technical capacity for ocean exploration, management, and stewardship. Direct implications to management measures include evaluation of management efficacy, a spatial framework for improved monitoring sampling design, improved assessment of human-use impacts, and marine spatial planning to support alternative marine protected area boundary alternatives.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
    Chapter 1: Benthic Habitat Classification Scheme of Moderate-Depth Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands (source 1 of 4)
    Costa, B.M., L.J. Bauer, T.A. Battista, P.W. Mueller and M.E. Monaco., 2009, Moderate-Depth Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands: NOAA's Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Silver Spring, MD.

    Other_Citation_Details:
    Costa, B.M., L.J. Bauer, T.A. Battista, P.W. Mueller and M.E. Monaco. 2009. Moderate-Depth Benthic Habitats of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS 105. Silver Spring, MD. 55 pp.
    Type_of_Source_Media: report
    Source_Contribution:
    This section of the report describes the habitat classification scheme used to classifiy habitat features. The St. John habitat classification scheme defines benthic communities on the basis of four primary coral reef ecosystem attributes: 1) broad geographic zone, 2) geomorphological structure type, 3) dominant biological cover, and 4) degree of live coral cover.
    NOAA Habitat Digitizer Extension (source 2 of 4)
    Buja, Ken, 2009, NOAA Habitat Digitizer Extension: NOAA's Ocean Service (NOS), National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Silver Spring, MD.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details:
    NOAA. 2009. Habitat Digitizer Extension. NOAA Biogeography Branch. Silver Spring, MD. Available: https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/projects/detail?key=203.
    Type_of_Source_Media: computer program
    Source_Contribution:
    This ArcGIS extension was used to digitize and attribute benthic zones, structure and biological cover of this map.
    IKONOS satellite imagery (source 3 of 4)
    Inc., Space Imaging, 2005, IKONOS Satellite Imagery: Space Imaging Inc., Thornton, CO.

    Other_Citation_Details:
    This imagery was obtained at a 4 m pixel resolution, deglinted and pan sharpened.
    Type_of_Source_Media: raster digital data
    Source_Contribution:
    Used to identify and digitize benthic habitats of St. John, USVI.
    Orthophotography (source 4 of 4)
    3001, Inc., 2007, Orthophotography: 3001, Inc., 401 Dividend Drive, Suite K, Peachtree City, GA 30269.

    Other_Citation_Details:
    Imagery acquired on contract to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
    Type_of_Source_Media: raster digital data
    Source_Contribution:
    Used to identify and digitize benthic habitats of St. John, USVI.
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
    Date: 2009 (process 1 of 6)

    Process_Date 2005 and 2009

    Date: 2009 (process 2 of 6)
    2) Habitat Boundary Delineation - A first draft benthic habitat map was generated using edge detection algorithms to delineate features on the seafloor with discrete acoustic signatures. During the creation of this first draft map, the cartographer placed discrete points on features in the map that had unknown acoustic signatures, warranting further field investigation. Points were also placed on features with known acoustic signatures (evenly distributed throughout the geographic extent of the map) to confirm that the habitats associated with these signatures remained consistent through the area of interest. These two types of points were labeled as "ground validation" sites and were visited in the field.
    Date: 2009 (process 3 of 6)
    Process_Date 2005 and 2009
    Date: 2009 (process 4 of 6)
    4) Habitat Classification - A CART-like (Classification and Regression Tree) algorithm was used to classify each habitat feature delineated by the edge-detection algorithms described in step 2. To simplify this classification process, coral reef habitat features, and soft bottom and rhodolith habitat features were classified separately. The classification algorithm separated these two habitat feature types into different major and detailed structure, biological cover and lives coral classes. The two, resulting classifications were merged together and manually edited to create a final seamless habitat map.
    Date: 2009 (process 5 of 6)
    5) Accuracy Assessment (AA) - AA sites were generated using a stratified random sampling design (based on detailed structure type) that allowed for a statistically rigorous assessment of map accuracy. Underwater video was collected at these 299 sites using a manually operated drop camera.
    Date: 2009 (process 6 of 6)
    6) Final Products Creation - A final benthic habitat map for the VICRNM was generated by correcting inaccuracies identified by the accuracy assessment. Additionally, all associated datasets, including GIS files, field video and metadata were packaged and provided to project partners.
  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?

  1. How well have the observations been checked?
    A comprehensive assessment was conducted to evaluate the thematic accuracy of the St. John moderate-depth benthic habitat map. Thematic accuracy was characterized for major and detailed geomorphological structure, major and detailed biological cover, and percent coral cover. An independent accuracy assessment revealed overall map accuracies to be over 95% for major structure and cover classes, and over 88% and 74% for detailed structure and cover classes, respectively.

    The 88.7% accuracy achieved for detailed structure in NOAA's moderate-depth benthic habitat map is similar to the accuracies of recent NOAA shallow-water benthic habitat map for St. John (85.7%), as well as for the Florida Keys (86.2%), Palau (90.0%), and the Main Eight Hawaiian Islands (90.0%).

  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?
    Please see the following document for more information on positional accuracy:

    Battista, T. A., and Lazar, J.V. (2005). MBES data acquisition & processing report: Project NF-05-05-USVI, NOAA Data Acquisition & Processing Report, NOS NCCOS CCMA (On-line).

    On-line: http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/products/biogeography/usvi_nps/pdf/NF-05-05_DAPR.pdf

  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
    Delineation of all habitat boundaries was conducted using edge-detection algorithms. The minimum mapping unit (MMU) for identifying habitats or features was 1,000 square meters.
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?
    Acoustic imagery was acquired for the southern VICRNM boundaries on two separate missions onboard the NOAA ship, Nancy Foster. The first mission took place from 2/18 to 3/5/2004, and the second mission took place from 2/1 to 2/12/2005. On both missions, seafloor depths between 14 to 55 m were mapped using a RESON SeaBat 8101 ER (240 kHz) MBES sensor (Figure 2.5). This pole-mounted system measured water depths across a 150 degree swath consisting of 101 individual 1.5 degree x 1.5 degree beams. The vessel survey speed was between 5 and 8 knots. In 2004, the ship's location was determined by a Trimble DSM 132 DGPS system, which provided a RTCM differential data stream from the U.S. Coast Guard Continually Operating Reference Station (CORS) at Port Isabel, Puerto Rico. Gyro, heave, pitch and roll correctors were acquired using an Ixsea Octans gyrocompass.

    In 2005, the ship's positioning and orientation were determined by the Applanix POS/MV 320 V4, which is a GPS aided Inertial Motion Unit (IMU) providing measurements of roll, pitch and heading. The POS/ MV obtained its positions from two dual frequency Trimble Zephyr GPS antennae. An auxiliary Trimble DSM 132 DGPS system provided a RTCM differential data stream from the U.S. Coast Guard CORS at Port Isabel, Puerto Rico. For both years, CTD (conductivity, temperature and depth) measurements were taken approximately every 4 hours using a Seabird Electronics SBE-19 to correct for changing sound velocities in the water column.

    GIS topologic quality was established by executing ArcGIS extension routines that check for: overlapping polygons, multipart polygons, sliver polygons and void polygons. Additionally checks for adjacent polygons with the same habitat attributes were completed. All errors were identified and corrected. This file is believed to be logically consistent.

How can someone get a copy of the data set?

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?
Access_Constraints: None
Use_Constraints: Not for navigation.
  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)
    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA), Biogeography Program
    1305 East West Highway
    Silver Spring, MD

    301-713-3028 x171 (voice)
    301-713-4384 (FAX)
    tim.battista@noaa.gov
    Hours_of_Service: 0800 - 1700, Monday to Friday, EST
  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set? Downloadable Data
  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?
    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) is publishing this data on their website. NCCOS Biogeography Branch does not guarantee the accuracy of the geographic features or attributes. Please see the written report and metadata records for each data set for complete information on the source, limitations, and proper use.
  4. How can I download or order the data?
  5. Is there some other way to get the data?
    Contact NOAA for distribution options (see Distributor).

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 29-Mar-2020
Last Reviewed: 23-Feb-2010
Metadata author:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA), Biogeography Branch
1305 East West Highway
Silver Spring, MD

301-713-3028 (voice)
301-713-4384 (FAX)
Hours_of_Service: 0800 - 1700, Monday to Friday, EST
Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)
Generated by mp version 2.9.48 on Fri Apr 19 11:01:43 2024