2004 UC Proceedings Abstract
 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 |
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