[Coral-List] Request for maps and georeferenced benthic datasets to support Allen Coral Atlas global coral reef mapping effort

[Emma Kennedy]

The Allen Coral Atlas mapping team are reaching out to Coral-Listers to help improve our global coral reef habitat map! Using Planet Labs satellite data, we are attempting to map shallow water tropical reefs on a region-by-region basis. Due to covid-19 restrictions, our field teams have been unable to collect all the field data that we'd hoped to support our mapping effort. Existing coral reef maps, and spatially geo-referenced benthic datasets are critical for helping our University of Queensland Remote Sensing Research Centre team generate training datasets for the machine learning process we use to generate maps, as well as validate the maps we create. A combination of cloud computing and machine learning are used to create the maps in Google Earth Engine. The better quality training data we have for each region, the more reliable our coral reef mapping outputs. All the coral reef habitat maps we generate will be freely available to explore (and download, from July) as they appear on our website https://allencoralatlas.org/
Do you or your organisation have a) tropical coral reef geomorphic or benthic habitat maps, or b) spatially geo-referenced benthic data (photo-quadrats, transect data) that you would be willing to share, to help us produce better maps for our coral reef community?

If you think you can help, please let us know at submissions at allencoralatlas.org<mailto:submissions at allencoralatlas.org>!

Any reference data provided as a result of this request will only be used internally to improve maps, and not shared outside our team. Reference datasets used to calibrate and validate Allen Coral Atlas maps will be attributed: https://allencoralatlas.org/attribution/

Thank you so much to the many friends and colleagues on this list that have helped us so far.

Cheers,

Emma Kennedy, University of Queensland (on behalf of the UQ ACA mapping team)

The Allen Coral Atlas, led by Vulcan Inc. is a partnership that also includes Arizona State University's Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, the National Geographic Society, Planet, and the University of Queensland. You can read more about the Atlas here: https://allencoralatlas.org/