This benthic habitat map was created from a semi-automated habitat mapping process, using a combination of bathymetry, satellite imagery, aerial imagery and underwater videos to classify the 0-35m deep benthic habitats of the region around Northeast Puerto Rico (NEPR) and Culebra Island, including the shallow part of the Northeast Ecological Reserves, Puerto Rico. The area of interest includes the nearshore waters of Fajardo and Luqillo to the Former Roosevelt Roads Navy Base, the Vieques Sound, La Cordillera Reserve, the Luis Pena Reserve, and the waters around Culebra Island. The benthic habitat map is classified based: on 1) geomorphological structure, 2) hard bottom cover, 3) topographic complexity, 4) dominant biological cover, 5) live coral cover and 6) dominant type of coral cover. Underwater photo and video data was collected to provide ground validation for remote sensing imagery, and to assess the accuracy t of the final map. Habitat features are described by varying levels of detail (i.e., major and minor categories nested within them), so users can depict the habitat information that best suits their research or management needs.

This project is a cooperative effort between the National Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment, the University of Hawaii, IMSG and Analytical Laboratories of Hawaii, LLC. The goal of the work was to incorporate previously developed mapping methods to produce coral reef habitat maps for The Republic of Palau. GPS field observations were used to establish the thematic accuracy of this thematic product. 623 benthic habitat characterizations were completed in UTM Zone 53N for this work.

This project is a cooperative effort among the National Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment; the United States Geological Survey; the National Park Service; and the National Geophysical Data Center. The goal of this work was to develop coral reef mapping methods and compare the accuracy of benthic habitat maps generated from on-screen digitizing off of georeferenced color aerial photography, with maps digitized directly from hard copy photographs using a stereoplotter. Thematic accuracy of the Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands habitat maps was evaluated for the three most general habitat categories: unconsolidated sediment, submerged vegetation, and coral reef/hard bottom. Accuracy was estimated at two locations within the project area that included the full complement of habitat types, depth ranges, and water conditions representative of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For this reason, the accuracy of maps measured at these two locations is assumed to be representative of map accuracy elsewhere in the project area. This approach, which focused in two small areas, enabled a statistically robust evaluation of thematic accuracy to be conducted without the logistic difficulty of collecting data for accuracy assessment over the entire project area.Comparison with the accuracy assessment data revealed very similar levels of thematic accuracy between the two maps. Overall accuracy was 93.6 percent (Kappa 0.93). Maps produced from on-screen digitizing were almost 100 percent accurate for the submerged vegetation and unconsolidated sediment categories but misclassified a small percentage of hardbottom sites as unconsolidated sediment. Similarly, the maps produced using the stereoplotter were 100 percent accurate at classifying submerged vegetation but misclassified a small percentage of hardbottom and unconsolidated sediment sites. These findings suggest that both of these mapping techniques result in acceptable levels of thematic accuracy for maps produced at this scale with this type of classification scheme.

This shapefile denotes the location of underwater photos and videos taken in shallow water (0-35m) benthic habitats surrounding Northeast Puerto Rico and Culebra Island. The area includes the nearshore waters of Fajardo and Luqillo to the Former Roosevelt Roads Navy Base, the Vieques Sound, La Cordillera Reserve, the Luis Pena Reserve, and the waters around Culebra Island. The Accuracy Assessment data contains GPS-positioned underwater photo/videos of selected benthic habitats that were used to assess the accuracy of the benthic habitat polygons created by the Biogeography Team. The observations from the videos are used to rate the amount of error in the polygons that delineate habitat features. The AA data was collected in September 3 15, 2014. The field work was conducted by NOAA together with local DRNA and NOAA contractors.

This project is a cooperative effort between the National Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment, the University of Hawaii, Analytical Laboratories of Hawaii, LLC. The goal of the work was to incorporate previously developed mapping methods to produce benthic habitat maps generated by photo interpreting georeferenced IKONOS satellite imagery. These point data were generated to conduct ground validation during map preparation.

This shapefile denotes the location of underwater photos and videos taken in shallow water (0-35m) benthic habitats surrounding Northeast Puerto Rico and Culebra Island. The area includes the nearshore waters of Fajardo and Luqillo to the Former Roosevelt Roads Navy Base, the Vieques Sound, La Cordillera Reserve, the Luis Pena Reserve, and the waters around Culebra Island. The GV data contains GPS-positioned underwater photo/videos of selected benthic habitats that were used to enhance thematic maps created by the Biogeography Team. The observations from the videos are used to classify seafloor features and develop a benthic habitat map. The GV data was collected in July 8 - 24, 2013 and October 22- November 7, 2013. The field work was conducted by NOAA together with local DRNA and NOAA contractors.

This geographic zone map was created by interpreting satellite and aerial imagery, seafloor topography (bathymetry model), and the new NEPR Benthic Habitat Map (2015). The area of interest includes the nearshore shallow waters (0-35m) of Fajardo and Luqillo to the Former Roosevelt Roads Navy Base, the Vieques Sound, La Cordillera Reserve, the Luis Pena Reserve, and the waters around Culebra Island. A zone refers to each benthic community's geographic location and geomorphological structure. The geographic zone map was manually digitized the shoreline and the zone features for the entire area of interest in ArcGIS at the 1:6000 scale. The map was classified into 12 geographic zones based on the schema that has been developed by the Biogeography Branch, and which also match the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS).

This project is a cooperative effort among the National Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment; the United States Geological Survey; the National Park Service; and the National Geophysical Data Center. The goal of this work was to develop coral reef mapping methods and compare the accuracy of benthic habitat maps generated from on-screen digitizing off of georeferenced color aerial photography, with maps digitized directly from hard copy photographs using a stereoplotter. Thematic accuracy of the Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands habitat maps was evaluated for the three most general habitat categories: unconsolidated sediment, submerged vegetation, and coral reef/hard bottom. Accuracy was estimated at two locations within the project area that included the full complement of habitat types, depth ranges, and water conditions representative of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For this reason, the accuracy of maps measured at these two locations is assumed to be representative of map accuracy elsewhere in the project area. This approach, which focused in two small areas, enabled a statistically robust evaluation of thematic accuracy to be conducted without the logistic difficulty of collecting data for accuracy assessment over the entire project area.Comparison with the accuracy assessment data revealed very similar levels of thematic accuracy between the two maps. Overall accuracy was 93.6 percent (Kappa 0.90) for on-screen digitizing and 87.8 percent (Kappa 0.82) for maps digitized directly from stereo pairs. Maps produced from on-screen digitizing were almost 100 percent accurate for the submerged vegetation and unconsolidated sediment categories but misclassified a small percentage of hardbottom sites as unconsolidated sediment. Similarly, the maps produced using the stereoplotter were 100 percent accurate at classifying submerged vegetation but misclassified a small percentage of hardbottom and unconsolidated sediment sites. These findings suggest that both of these mapping techniques result in acceptable levels of thematic accuracy for maps produced at this scale with this type of classification scheme.

This shapefile denotes the location of underwater photos and/or video that were collected by NOAA scientists using a Spectrum Phantom S2 ROV (remotely operated vehicle). Photos and/or video were collected between 03/28/2011 and 04/16/2011 along 50 transects (please note that dive 26 was aborted) south of St. John and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands and east of Vieques, Puerto Rico. These photos and videos will be manually classified into different habitat classes, and integrated with the abiotic data collected by the acoustic sonar (sound navigation and ranging) systems to develop a benthic habitat map for the U.S. Caribbean. Habitat maps describe the location of habitat features (in relation to the shoreline), their physical composition and the types of organisms that colonize them. Fundamentally, habitat maps provide critical information about the extent, health and composition of marine resources, which is vital for communicating information about the distribution and abundance of species to resource managers, scientists and the public. Habitat maps also support an increasing number of landscape ecology studies, as well as the process of marine spatial planning, including the design and evaluation of marine protected areas (MPAs).

Benthic habitats of the moderate-depth marine environment in and around the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument were mapped using a combination of semi-automated classification and visual interpretation of acoustic imagery. The objective of this effort, conducted by NOAA's Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment - Biogeography Branch in partnership with the U.S. National Park Service (NPS), was to provide spatially-explicit information on the moderate-depth habitat types, biological cover and live coral cover south of St. John. The data contained in this shapefile represent the mean locations of the 117 ground validation (GV) sites explored by NOAA field scientists to further refine habitat map classification. Considering vessel drift during habitat characterization, the entire evaluation period was most accurately represented by a series of GPS points logged at five-second intervals.