Benthic Habitats of the Main Hawaiian Islands Prepared by Visual Interpretation from Remote Sensing Imagery Collected by NOAA Year 2000: Niihau

This project is a cooperative effort among the National Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment, the University of Hawaii, and Analytical Laboratories of Hawaii, LLC. The goal of the work was to develop coral reef mapping methods and compare benthic habitat maps generated by photointerpreting georeferenced color aerial photography, hyperspectral and IKONOS satellite imagery. Twenty-seven distinct benthic habitat types within eleven zones were mapped directly into a GIS system using visual interpretation of orthorectified aerial photographs and hyperspectral imagery. Benthic features were mapped that covered an area of 790 km^2. In all, 204 km^2 of unconsolidated sediment, 171 km^2 of submerged vegetation, and 415 km^2 of coral reef and colonized hardbottom were mapped.