Guam and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Benthic Habitat Maps Prepared by Visual Interpretation from IKONOS satellite imagery procured by NOAA

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; BAE Systems Spectral Solutions; and Analytical Laboratories of Hawaii, LLC. The goal of the work was to map the coral reef habitats of American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands by visual interpretation and manual delineation of IKONOS satellite imagery. A two tiered habitat classification system was tested and implemented in this work. It integrates geomorphologic reef structure and biological cover into a single scheme and subsets each into detail. It also includes thirteen zones. Benthic features were mapped that covered an area of 149.2 square kilometers of which 37 were unconsolidated sediment and 112 were coral reef and hard bottom.