Aerial photos of Hawaiian Reefs

[Tracy Gill]

FYI -

Aerial photographs of Hawaii coral reef habitats are now
available for research and management uses.

NCCOS’s Biogeography Program in Cooperation with NGS has developed
digital images of the main eight Hawaiian Islands from the NOS aerial
photography mission conducted April-June 2000.  These images are
available via the Internet at:

Hawaii Benthic Mapping Project:
http://biogeo.nos.noaa.gov/projects/mapping/pacific/

or

Biogeography Program Image Finder:
http://biogeo.nos.noaa.gov/products/data/photos/

Approximately 250 NEW images have been added for the main eight Hawaiian

Islands aerial photograph database. The imagery on the NOS Biogeography
Program web site  (http://biogeo.nos.noaa.gov) represents the scanned or

digital versions of approximately 600 color photographs available for
about one third of the main eight Hawaiian Island.  Plans are to acquire

the additional data in 2001/02. Habitats will be mapped by classifying
digital mosaics of the aerial photography and other technologies. Two
pilot study areas, Koneohe Bay and Kona, have already been mapped using
the 2000 peer reviewed habitat classification scheme and is available as

a GIS layer on the Biogeography Program’s website using ESRI’s Internet
Mapping Server software. The scheme was devised by NOS staff working
with expert photointerpreters and members of the local research and
management community.  When completed, the benthic habitat mapping
project in the main eight Hawaiian Islands will support the requested
products from the US Coral Reef Task Force and Hawaii resource managers
and scientists.

In addition, the Biogeography Program has compiled a Briefing report
available as an Acrobat document
(http://biogeo.nos.noaa.gov/descriptions), detailing NOS’s FY00/01)
progress and accomplishments for the "Integrative Coral Reef Research
Program to Map, Assess, Inventory, and Monitor U.S. Coral Reef
Ecosystems".

For additional information or questions, contact Michael Coyne, at 301
713 3028 x 175,
Tim Battista, at 301 713 3028, or Mark Monaco at 301 713 3028 x 160




~~~~~~~
For directions on subscribing and unsubscribing to coral-list or the
digests, please visit www.coral.noaa.gov, click on Popular on the
menu bar, then click on Coral-List Listserver.