Hawaiian Islands Live Coral Cover from Airborne Mapping

2019 data from the Global Airborne Observatory maps the geographic distribution of live coral cover to 16-meter water depth across the eight main Hawaiian Islands. The dataset was created using an airborne approach combining laser-guided imaging spectroscopy and deep learning models. It is provided in standard GeoTIFF format organized by island.

Use Cases

• Assessing reef conservation priorities based on live coral distribution.
• Validating and training remote sensing models for benthic habitat classification.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of coral cover across different islands and depths.
• Establishing a baseline for monitoring coral reef changes over time.

Strengths

• Provides large-scale, high-resolution mapping of live corals across eight major islands.
• Data collection methodology is detailed in a peer-reviewed PNAS publication.
• Covers coral distribution down to a significant depth of 16 meters.

Limitations

• Dataset size, row count, and specific column information are not provided in the source metadata.
• The data is from a single year (2019), limiting temporal analysis.
• The 'last updated' field is unknown, making freshness difficult to assess.

Provenance

Source

Global Airborne Observatory, Arizona State University, led by Gregory P. Asner.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

2019

Geography

The eight main Hawaiian Islands.