2004 UC Proceedings Abstract

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ArcGIS 8.x Benthic Habitat Extension: Analysis in American Samoa
Track: Ocean, Coastal, and Marine Resources
Author(s): Ronald Rinehart, Dawn Wright, Lori Cary-Kothera, Emily Larkin, Emily Lundblad, Joshua Murphy

Remotely sensed multibeam data can produce high quality maps of the marine and coastal benthic environment. However, to date there has not been a widely adopted methodology for translating multibeam data into a useful product for characterizing and predicting benthic biotic community assemblages. Our goal was to develop a systematic and robust methodology by which multibeam data can be transformed into a classified product that is useful for coastal and marine resource managers, scientists and educators in American Samoa. This methodology analyzes bathymetry to derive slope, aspect, rugosity, and

bathymetric position index. The NOAA Coastal Services Center has developed a new ArcGIS 8.x compatible tool, tentatively named the Benthic Terrain Modeler (BTM), based on this methodology. This extension's wizard interface educates and guides the user through a series of analysis steps, resulting in a classified terrain that may be suitable for tying to benthic species distributions for the preparation of benthic habitat maps. This methodology has been used to produce the first benthic habitat maps and 3-D visualizations of Vatia Bay, American Samoa.

Ronald Rinehart
Oregon State University
Geosciences
104 Wilkinson Hall, OSU Campus
Corvallis , OR 97331
US
Phone: 541-737-8818
E-mail: rineharr@onid.orst.edu

Dawn Wright
Oregon State University
Geosciences
104 Wilkinson Hall
Corvallis , OR 97331-5506
US
Phone: 541-737-8818
Fax: 541-737-1200
E-mail: dawn@dusk.geo.orst.edu

Lori Cary-Kothera
NOAA Coastal Services Center
2234 South Hobson Avenue
Charleston , SC 29405-2413
US
Phone: 843-740-1243
Fax: 843-740-1315
E-mail: Lori.Cary-Kothera@noaa.gov

Emily Larkin
Oregon State University
Geosciences Department
104 Wilkinson Hall
Corvallis , OR 97331
US
Phone: 541-737-8818
E-mail: larkine@science.oregonstate.edu

Emily Lundblad
Oregon State University
Geosciences Department
104 Wilkinson Hall
Corvallis , OR 97331
US
Phone: 541-737-8818
E-mail: emily@lifetime.oregonstate.edu

Joshua Murphy
NOAA Coastal Services Center
2234 South Hobson Avenue
Charleston , SC 29405-2413
US
Phone: 843-740-1246
Fax: 843-740-1315
E-mail: Joshua.Murphy@noaa.gov