Shallow-water (<30m) benthic habitat maps of the nearshore marine environment of two areas in Southwest Puerto Rico (PR), including the Guanica Bay/La Parguera region on the south coast and the Belvedere reserve on the west coast, were mapped and characterized using visual interpretation of optical and acoustic remotely sensed imagery. The objective was to provide spatially-explicit information on the habitat types, biological cover and live coral cover of the region’s coral reef ecosystem. These maps will be used to support marine resource management and conservation in the Commonwealth. In addition, the maps will enable change detection in an assessment of the effectiveness of restoration activities on the condition of adjacent coral reef ecosystems.
This product provides a fine-scale assessment of the status, abundance, and distribution of marine habitats of Southwest Puerto Rico. 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. In addition, the maps will enable change detection in an assessment of the effectiveness of restoration activities on the condition of adjacent coral reef ecosystems.
ground condition
Note: NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION. These data were prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. Any views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. Although all data have been used by NOAA, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by NOAA as to the accuracy of the data and/or related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by NOAA in the use of these data or related materials.
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Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA), Biogeography Branch
Results of an accuracy assessment are described in accompanying report.
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.
Delineation of all habitat boundaries was conducted with the image scale at 1:3,000. This ensured that the level of detail produced by the photo interpreter was uniform throughout the project. The minimum mapping unit (MMU) for identifying habitats or features was 1,000 square meters. The software utilized in this project was designed to alert the photo interpreter each time a polygon was drawn smaller than the a MMU; at which point the polygon was then aggregated with the most logical adjacent polygon.
The accuracy value for the optical imagery was determined by measuring photo-identifiable control points collected with GPS survey methods. There is no horizontal accuracy report for the acoustic imagery. It is believed that polygon horizontal accuracies are inherited from both types of source imagery.
None.
This section of the report describes the habitat classification scheme used to classify habitat features. The Southwest PR habitat classification scheme defines benthic communities on the basis of five primary coral reef ecosystem attributes: 1) broad geographic zone, 2) geomorphological structure type, 3) dominant biological cover, 4) degree of live coral cover, and 5) percent hardbottom.
This ArcGIS extension was used to digitize and attribute benthic zones, structure and biological cover of this map.
Used to identify and digitize benthic habitats of Southwest PR.
1) Imagery Acquisition - The first step in map creation was the acquisition and processing of a comprehensive dataset of remotely sensed imagery. All imagery was geo-positioned to ensure acceptable spatial accuracy in the mapping product. Two separate data types were used (color orthophotography and GeoEye satellite imagery) in order to capture the full mappable extent using optical techniques. The GeoEye imagery was the primary imagery source.
2) Habitat Boundary Delineation - A first draft benthic habitat map was generated by delineating all features that could be identified by visual inspection of the remotely sensed imagery. During the creation of this first draft, the interpreter placed discrete points on the map that were difficult to distinguish and that warranted further field investigation. These sites were labeled as "ground validation" positions.
3) Ground Validation - NOAA field scientists explored the ground validation locations with a suite of assessment techniques depending on the conditions at each site. A combination of underwater video, free diving, snorkeling and surface observations were used to survey the ecological characteristics at each location. This information was analyzed and the initial maps were edited to generate a second draft map.
4) Expert Review - The draft map was then reviewed by local marine biologists, coral reef scientists and resource managers. Comments were integrated into the map products to generate a final draft map.
5) Accuracy Assessment - An independent team of NOAA scientists not associated with map creation, conducted field investigations at pre-defined locations to assess the accuracy of the final draft map. Locations were generated with a stratified random sampling design that allowed for a statistically rigorous assessment of map accuracy.
6) Final Products Creation - A final benthic habitat map for Southwest PR was generated following the expert review. Additionally, all associated datasets, including GIS files, field video and metadata were packaged and provided to project partners and the public.
Internal feature number.
ESRI
Feature geometry.
A distinct identifier used to define each unique combination of habitat characteristics
NOAA
Calculated feature area in square kilometers
Geographic zone
Habitat classification scheme
Major geomorphological structure
Detailed geomorphological structure
Percent hardbottom
Major biological cover
Percent cover of major biological cover
Percent Cover of Live Coral
Concatenation of Major Biological Cover and Percent Major Biological Cover
Specific details of the attributes and values therein can be found in the "Shallow-Water Benthic Habitats of Southwest Puerto Rico" report.
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (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.
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