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This map was developed by the Allen Coral Atlas using Planet Dove 3.7m resolution daily satellite imagery (in combination with wave models and ecological data). A total of 12 classes were used, as listed: Reef Slope - a submerged, sloping area extending seaward from the Reef Crest (or Flat) towards the shelf break, windward facing, or any direction if no dominant prevailing wind or current exists. Sheltered Reef Slope - any submerged, sloping area extending into Deep Water but protected from strong directional prevailing wind or current, either by land or by opposing reef structures. Reef Crest - a zone marking the boundary between the Reef Flat and the Reef Slope, generally shallow and characterised by highest wave energy absorbance. Outer Reef Flat - adjacent to the seaward edge of the reef,a levelled (near horizontal) broad and shallow carbonate platform, displaying distinct wave-driven zonation. Inner Reef Flat - a low energy, sediment-dominated, horizontal to gently sloping platform behind the Outer Reef Flat. Terrestrial Reef Flat - a broad, flat, shallow to semi-exposed area fringing reef flat
found directly attached to land at one side. It is subject to freshwater run-off, nutrients and sedimentation. Back Reef Slope - a complex, interior - often gently sloping - reef zone occurring
behind the Reef Flat. Of variable depth (but deeper than Reef Flat and more sloped), it is sheltered, sediment-dominated and often punctuated by coral outcrops. Deep Lagoon - any sheltered broad body of water, fully to semi-enclosed by reef, with a variable depth (but deeper than 5 m approx. and shallower than surrounding ocean) and a soft bottom dominated by reef-derived sediment. Shallow Lagoon - any fully to semi-enclosed, sheltered, flat-bottomed sediment dominated lagoon area, shallower than 5 m approx. Plateau - any deeper submerged (> 5 m approx), hard-bottomed, horizontal to gently sloping (angle shallower than 10 degrees approx), seaward facing reef platform. Patch Reef - any small, detached to semi-detached lagoonal coral outcrop arising from a sheltered, sandy-bottomed area. Small Reef - any detached (stand-alone) reef, surrounded by Deep Water and too small (generally less than approx. 1 sq km) to show a central depression and/or clear geomorphic zonation (e.g. crest, flat, backreef) besides a Reef Slope. Unknown - any location where a Global Geomorphic Class cannot be defined due to some factor that made classification difficult or impossible (e.g., depth too shallow, depth too deep, cloud interference, turbid water).
For detailed explanation of how these classes were created, the Allen Coral Atlas suggests looking to:
Kennedy, E.; Roelfsema, C.; Lyons, M.; Kovacs, E.; Borrego-Acevedo, R.; Roe, M.; Phinn, S.; Larsen, K.; Murray, N.; Yuwono, D., et
al. (2020) Reef Cover: a coral reef classification to guide global habitat mapping from remote sensing. bioRxiv 2020,
doi:10.1101/2020.09.10.29224
For publication to EMODnet, SAERI cleaned the maps in mapshaper.org using the -clean function and edited the data to fit with the Data Exchange Format. All work was completed in QGIS v3.28.4. |
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