EMODnet product catalogue
Shallow-Water Benthic Habitats of Southwest Puerto Rico
The dataset is comprised of 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, which 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. This dataset provides an update to existing NOAA benthic habitat maps (created in 2001) of the waters off southwest Puerto Rico, extending from Guanica Bay in the east to Cabo Rojo in the west as part of a baseline characterization in support of watershed restoration. These fine-scale habitat maps, generated by interpretation of 2010 satellite imagery, provide an update to NOAA's previous digital maps of the U.S. Caribbean1 (GUI: PR004001, V1004001, VI004002) for these areas. Major improvements included:
More detailed maps using a reduced minimum mapping unit from one acre to 1,000 square meters (~1/4 acre),
Increased coverage of areas formerly classified as unknown,
More detailed habitat classification, and
Maps of marine areas adjacent to two natural reserves (Bosque Estatal de Guanica and Reserva Natural Finca Belvedere) in coordination with the NOAA Fisheries Caribbean Field Office.
NOAA used a technique known as "heads-up digitizing" to produce the digital maps, whereby digital satellite images are visually interpreted, then habitats are delineated in a hierarchical classification scheme.
Kendall, M.S., C.R. Kruer, K.R. Buja, J.D. Christensen, M. Finkbeiner, R.A. Warner and M.E. Monaco. 2001. Methods used to map the benthic habitats of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS CCMA 152. Silver Spring, MD. 45 pp
Simple
- Alternate title
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PR004002
- Date (Creation)
- 2012-11-01
- Citation identifier
- f9b2e18d-d5d7-4cf1-8555-65415f5b4841
- Credit
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Bauer, L.J., K. Edwards, K.K.W. Roberson, M.S. Kendall, S. Tormey, and T. Battista. 2012. Shallow-water benthic habitats of Southwest Puerto Rico. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA NOS NCCOS 155. Silver Spring, MD.
Data available at https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/project/benthic-habitat-mapping-off-southwest-puerto-rico/
- Point of contact
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Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Owner
- Access constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- no limitations to public access
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
-
When using this data you must cite the original data source and owner
- Spatial representation type
- Vector
- Denominator
- 12000
- Language
- English
- Topic category
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- Biota
- Oceans
))
- Begin date
- 2010-01-01
- Reference system identifier
- http://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/3857
- Distribution format
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Name Version ESRI Shapefile
1
GML
3.2.1
- OnLine resource
-
Protocol Linkage Name OGC:WMS
https://ows.emodnet-seabedhabitats.eu/geoserver/emodnet_view_maplibrary/wms pr004002
OGC:WFS
https://ows.emodnet-seabedhabitats.eu/geoserver/emodnet_open_maplibrary/wfs pr004002
WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
https://files.emodnet-seabedhabitats.eu/data/EMODnetSBHsurvey_PR004002.zip EMODnet Seabed Habitats Static Download
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
Conformance result
- Date (Publication)
- 2010-12-08
- Explanation
-
This data set is conformant with the INSPIRE Implementing Rules for the interoperability of spatial data sets and services
- Pass
- Yes
- Statement
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Benthic habitat maps of the nearshore marine environment of the southwest Puerto Rico region were created by visual interpretation of remotely sensed imagery conducted by NOAA. Remotely sensed imagery, including GeoEye satellite imagery and color orthophotography, proved to be an excellent source from which to derive the edges, extent and attributes of marine habitats. Boundaries of features were delineated on digital imagery using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and a custom extension to ArcGIS 9.3 that enabled easy attribution of bottom features. Field investigations were conducted from small marine vessels in order to ground validate the spectral signature created by the myriad of submerged features of the marine environment. Once digital maps were produced, an assessment of thematic map accuracy was conducted.
NOAA's approach to benthic habitat mapping of coral reef ecosystems was a six-step process:
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. In the case of the southwest Puerto Rico region, two separate data types were used (GeoEye satellite imagery and color orthophotography) to capture the full mappable extent using optical techniques.
2. Habitat Boundary Delineation - A 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 field investigation. These sites were referred to 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 second draft map was then distributed to local marine biologists, resource managers, and other experts for review. Comments were integrated into the map products to generate a third draft map.
5. Accuracy Assessment - Field investigations were conducted at pre-defined locations to assess the accuracy of the third draft map. Locations were generated with a stratified random sampling design that allowed for a statistically rigorous assessment of map accuracy. An independent NOAA scientist, not associated with map creation, classified the video and conducted the analysis.
6. Final Products Creation - A final benthic habitat map for the southwest Puerto Rico region was generated by correcting inaccuracies identified by the accuracy assessment. Additionally, all associated datasets, including GIS files, field video and metadata were packaged and provided to project partners and the public.
For publication to EMODnet, SAERI downloaded the data from https://coastalscience.noaa.gov/project/benthic-habitat-mapping-off-southwest-puerto-rico/, reprojected the published shapefile to EPSG:4326 - WGS 84 coordinate system, cleaned the data using mapshaper.org ( https://mapshaper.org/) to eliminate gaps and overlaps, and processed the structure to fit specific data exchange format in QGIS v3.28.4. During data processing, SAERI combined all habitat information together for each polygon. NOAA used a habitat classification scheme that defines benthic habitats based on five attributes: 1) broad geographic zone; 2) geomorphological structure type; 3) dominant biological cover; 4) amount of live coral cover; and 5) percent hardbottom. For the purposes of the data exchange format, SAERI combined all categories into the original habitat field. As such, original habitat should be interpreted as "Zone--M_Struct (Geomorphological Structure Types)--D_Struct (Detailed Structure Class)--P_Hard (Percent Cover of Detailed Class Structure)--M_Cover (Biological Cover Class)--P_Cover (Biological Percent Cover)--P_Coral (Percent Live Coral Cover)".
Metadata
- File identifier
- f9b2e18d-d5d7-4cf1-8555-65415f5b4841 XML
- Metadata language
- English
- Character set
- UTF8
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
- Date stamp
- 2023-10-30T13:31:36.862Z
- Metadata author
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Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role South Atlantic Environmental and Research Institue (SAERI)
Point of contact
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