Hawaiian Islands Live Coral Cover from Airborne Mapping 2020

2020 airborne mapping data quantifies the geographic distribution of live coral cover to 16-meter depth across the eight main Hawaiian Islands. The data were produced using laser-guided imaging spectroscopy and deep learning models, and are provided in standard GeoTIFF format organized by island. The dataset supports research on coral mortality and refugia following marine heatwaves.

Use Cases

• Assessing coral mortality and identifying refugia based on archipelago-scale live coral cover maps.
• Modeling the impact of marine heatwaves on reef ecosystems using spatially explicit coral distribution data.
• Informing coastal management and conservation planning for the Hawaiian Islands based on geospatial coral cover data.
• Validating and training remote sensing algorithms for benthic habitat classification using airborne spectroscopy data.

Strengths

• Provides archipelago-scale coverage of all eight main Hawaiian Islands.
• Derived from a specific, advanced methodology combining laser-guided imaging spectroscopy and deep learning.
• Has a clear scientific provenance, being directly linked to a peer-reviewed PNAS publication from 2022.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as file size, row count, and specific column/band definitions are not provided in the available sources.
• The temporal coverage is limited to a single snapshot from the year 2020.
• The dataset's spatial resolution and specific accuracy metrics are not detailed in the provided descriptions.

Provenance

Source

Gregory P. Asner (Arizona State University) and collaborators, via the Global Airborne Observatory.

Collection Method

Airborne mapping combining laser-guided imaging spectroscopy and deep learning models.

Time Range

2020

Geography

The eight main Hawaiian Islands.