for
Ecosystem-Based Tropical Coral Reef Management
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have teamed up with academic research partners to expand the NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW) Decision Support System (DSS) for coral reef management. The existing CRW DSS (at 50 km resolution) is used by resource managers and scientists around the world to prepare for and respond to coral reef ecosystem stressors related to climate change. These users have expressed a desire for higher spatial and temporal resolution tools to better understand local issues on their reefs. This research effort is delivering the following two products:
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Higher spatio-temporal resolution coral bleaching thermal stress satellite monitoring products:
A result of the NASA and NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program-funded
project, "A Decision Support System for Ecosystem-Based Management of Tropical Coral Reef Environments" is a series
of coral bleaching thermal stress monitoring products at higher spatial and temporal resolutions derived
using satellite data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS),
the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
(AVHRR), and other imager instruments onboard geostationary
satellites. The team has generated global assessments at 5 km and is validating regional products at 1 km resolution
for the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico:
- Coral Reef Watch (CRW) daily global 5 km coral bleaching thermal stress monitoring product suite
-
University of South Florida (USF) regional 1 km product suite
- USF product web portal
- USF product FTP sites:
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High spatial resolution thematic coral reef classification maps:
This product is the Global Coral Reef Millennium Map, a 30 m resolution
thematic classification of coral reefs developed by the NASA Landsat-7 Science
Team. The Millennium Maps help users understand the geomorphology of individual reefs
around the world.
These products will be made available through NOAA CRW and potentially through the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), with visualization and knowledge synthesis tools designed to help users formulate policy options and management decisions. An independent team has been evaluating the new products with a range of users.
The expanded DSS has a global scope; yet, it also addresses the needs of local resource managers. The work complements efforts to map and monitor coral reef communities in the U.S. territories by NOAA, NASA, and the USGS, and contributes to international efforts in ecological forecasting of coral reefs under changing environments, coral reef research, resource management, and conservation. This activity directly addresses the objectives of the NASA Ecological Forecasting application area.
Partners on this effort include NOAA Coral Reef Watch, the University of South Florida Institute of Marine Remote Sensing, NASA-Ames Research Center, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the UNEP-WCMC.
