St. John Benthic Habitat Mapping - Moderate Depth Ground Validation Sites

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 denote the position of the drop camera as it drifted over 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.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
accrualPeriodicity irregular
bureauCode {006:48}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
identifier St. John Benthic Habitat Mapping - Moderate Depth Ground Validation Sites
language {en-US}
modified 2009-01-01
old-spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-64.788976, 18.238759], [-64.66442, 18.238759], [-64.66442, 18.312323], [-64.788976, 18.312323], [-64.788976, 18.238759]]]}
programCode {006:055}
publisher National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Ocean Service (NOS), National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA), Biogeography Branch (Point of Contact)
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 0954730e3c37f9a5fdd26bcbf30674d8051058dd
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-64.788976, 18.238759], [-64.66442, 18.238759], [-64.66442, 18.312323], [-64.788976, 18.312323], [-64.788976, 18.238759]]]}
temporal 2009-01-05T00:00:00/2009-06-07T00:00:00
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • benthic-habitats
  • biological-cover
  • ckan
  • coral-reef
  • earth-science-biosphere-aquatic-habitat-benthic-habitat
  • geo
  • geographic-information-habitats
  • geomorphological-structure
  • geoss
  • ground-validation
  • national
  • north-america
  • reef
  • st-john
  • submerged-aquatic-vegetation
  • transect
  • u-s-virgin-islands
  • unconsolidated-sediments
  • united-states
  • zone
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer Bryan Costa
maintainer_email bryan.costa@noaa.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-22T08:05:09.944632
metadata_modified 2025-11-22T08:05:09.944637
notes 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 denote the position of the drop camera as it drifted over 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.
num_resources 1
num_tags 22
title St. John Benthic Habitat Mapping - Moderate Depth Ground Validation Sites