[Coral-List] Regional coral reef maps for tsunami impacted areas

[serge at mail.marine.usf.edu]

Dear all,

Fyi, we have released through a simple interface at
http://imars.marine.usf.edu/corals/tsunami.html maps of coral reef in
areas impacted by the 26th December 2004 tsunami. The products are based
on Landsat 7 ETM+ images, several Landsat 5 TM and few ASTER used to
finish cloud-covered areas.

Click on the map or associated names right to the map to access the data.
They are delivered as Geographic Information System files per region, in
shapefiles format projected in UTM WGS-84. You can also browse subsampled
raster products per Landsat path/row (WRS2 grid system) and access the
full resolution raster on request.

Important: Note that all the products have been made using pre-tsunami
images, so the products don't show changes that may have followed the
tsunami, but they show more precisely than other regional scale products
the distribution and variety of coral reef structures along the shores of
Maldives, East and South Sri Lanka (not much reef structures there),
Myanmar,  Western Thailand, Nicobar and Andaman archipelagoes, and Western
Sumatra.

Products were requested by Reefbase and several groups as soon as
mid-January to help surveys planned in the impacted regions, and assess
damages to coastal ecosystems. Products were compiled in late January and
February, at the exception of Maldives mapped since June 2004.

These are equivalent to the standard products we do to map coral reef
worldwide using NASA (USA) and IRD (France) funds
(http://imars.marine.usf.edu/corals/index.html). We only modified our
shedule to prioritize the mapping of these areas and the release of the
products.

The web page provides more information.

Any comments or questions, and feedback on the products are welcome, and
can be directed to serge at seas.marine.usf.edu or andrefou at noumea.ird.nc

Thanks and cheers,

Serge Andrefouet

Serge Andrefouet
UR Coreus - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)
BP A5 - 98848 Nouméa cedex - Nouvelle Calédonie
Tél : (+687) 26 08 00 - Fax : (+687) 26 43 26 - andrefou at noumea.ird.nc