Ground Truth Data Used to Map the Benthic Habitat of the U.S. Virgin Islands

Dataset Identification:

Resource Abstract:
This project is a cooperative effort among the National Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment; U.S. Geological Survey; National Park Service; and the National Geophysical Data Center to produce benthic habitat maps and georeferenced imagery for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This project was conducted in support of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force. These point data were generated while conducting ground validation during map preparation.
Citation
Title Ground Truth Data Used to Map the Benthic Habitat of the U.S. Virgin Islands
publication  Date   2001-12-01
Edition 1.0
presentationForm  tableDigital
cited responsible party - publisher
organisation Name  NOAA's Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS)
Contact information
Address
, Silver Spring, MD
cited responsible party - originator
organisation Name  Department of Commerce (DOC), 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 Team
cited responsible party -
organisation Name  
Contact information
Linkage for online resource
URL: http://coastalscience.noaa.gov/datasets/ccma/biogeo/benthic/gtp/vi_gt.txt
cited responsible party -
organisation Name  
Contact information
Linkage for online resource
URL: http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/products/biogeography/benthic/
Topic Category:  oceans,environment
Keywords:
Theme keywords (theme):
Geographic Information > Ecological Characterization
thesaurus name >
Title CoRIS Discovery Thesaurus
Theme keywords (theme):
EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs
EARTH SCIENCE > Oceans > Coastal Processes > Coral Reefs > Coral reef ecology > Habitats
EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Aquatic Habitat > Reef Habitat
EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Aquatic Habitat > Reef Habitat > Description
EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef monitoring and assessment
EARTH SCIENCE > Biosphere > Zoology > Corals > Reef monitoring and assessment > In situ biological
thesaurus name >
Title CoRIS Theme Thesaurus
Theme keywords (theme):
coral
seagrass
SAV
reef
aerial photography
benthic
habitat
mangrove
environmental monitoring
oceans
thesaurus name >
Title None
Location keywords:
U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone
U.S. Virgin Islands
St. Thomas
St. John
St. Croix
thesaurus name >
Title None
purpose:
The National Ocean Service is conducting research to digitally map biotic resources and coordinate a long-term monitoring program that can detect and predict change in U.S. coral reefs, and their associated habitats and biological communities.
Resource language:  eng; USA
Resource progress code:  completed
Resource Maintenance Information
maintenance or update frequency:  notPlanned
Constraints on resource usage:
Constraints
Use limitation statement:
Data are not to be used for navigation.
Constraints on resource usage:
Legal Constraints
use constraint:  otherRestrictions
Other constraints
Use Constraints: None
Constraints on resource usage:
Legal Constraints
Access Constraints  otherRestrictions
Other constraints
Access Constraints: None
Spatial representation type code:  vector
Processing environment:  Native Dataset Environment: Microsoft Windows 2000 Version 5.0 (Build 2195) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 8.3.0.800
Resource extent
Geographic Extent
Geographic Bounding Box
westBoundLongitude  -65.09
eastBoundLongitude  -64.43
northBoundLatitude  18.41
southBoundLatitude  17.63
Temporal Extent
1999-01-01 2001-01-01
Additional information on resource:
The Ground Truth Points are available in a spreadsheet format.
Credits:
Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, University of Puerto Rico, United States Geological Survey, National Park Service, Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources, Division Fish and Wildlife, University of Virgin Islands, Conservation Data Center, The Nature Conservancy, Sea Grant, and other local and regional experts for input and review
point of contact - pointOfContact
organisation Name  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
position Name Biogeography Branch, Mapping Manager
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 301-713-3028
Fax 301-723-4384
Address
1305 East West Highway, N/SCI-1, Silver Spring, MD, 20910
electronic Mail Address Matt.Kendall@noaa.gov
hoursOfService 0800 - 1700, Monday to Friday, EST
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Content information: feature catalog description

Included With Dataset 
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Scope of quality information
scope level  dataset
Resource lineage description
source
source description  Source Contribution: This document identifies the zone and habitat types attributed in the data set.Source Type: Report
source citation
Title Classification Scheme for Benthic Habitats: Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
publication  Date   2001-01-01
presentationForm  documentDigital
cited responsible party - publisher
organisation Name  NOAA's Ocean Service, National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS)
Contact information
Address
, Silver Spring, MD
cited responsible party - originator
organisation Name  NOAA Caribbean Fishery Management Council
cited responsible party - originator
organisation Name  Dr. Ken Lindeman, Environmental Defense
cited responsible party - originator
organisation Name  NOS Biogeography Program
Resource extent
Temporal Extent
2001-01-01
AbsoluteExternalPositionalAccuracy
name Of Measure Horizontal Positional Accuracy Report
evaluation Method Description  Spatial data meets or exceeds national map accuracy standards for fixed features.
AbsoluteExternalPositionalAccuracy
name Of Measure Vertical Positional Accuracy Report
evaluation Method Description  Depth values are reported in feet from water surface. Values should be considered estimates only. In some cases, no estimate of depth could be provided.
Completeness Commission
evaluation Method Description  Following processing of the field data, polygon boundaries and habitat classifications were created or revised where necessary, and zone attributes were assigned to each polygon using the Habitat Digitizer Extension. This draft of the habitat maps was then reviewed and revised with the guidance of a panel of local experts at peer review sessions in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and over the Internet. Review session participants included members of the local research and management community. During these peer review sessions, particular attention was given to polygons labeled as "unknown" and areas not visited during ground truth activities. Revisions based on comments from local experts were then completed and final habitat maps were produced.
ConceptualConsistency
measure Description  Diapositives, and when available, draft delineations were used in the field to facilitate comparison of signatures in the imagery to actual habitats at each site. Individual sites were visually evaluated by snorkeling and free diving or directly from the boat in shallow, clear water. Where depth and water clarity permitted, the diapositives were used to navigate across multiple bottom features allowing continuous confirmation of habitat types and transitions between each site.

Resource distribution information

Distributor
distributor contact - distributor
organisation Name  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
position Name Biogeography Branch, Mapping Manager
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 301-713-3028
Fax 301-723-4384
Address
1305 East West Highway, N/SCI-1, Silver Spring, MD, 20910
electronic Mail Address Matt.Kendall@noaa.gov
hoursOfService 0800 - 1700, Monday to Friday, EST
Standard ordering process
fees none
Format
Format name Tab delimited text file
Format version 
Digital Transfer Options
Linkage for online resource
URL: http://coastalscience.noaa.gov/datasets/ccma/biogeo/benthic/gtp/vi_gt.txt

Metadata data stamp:  2015-10-17
Resource Maintenance Information
maintenance or update frequency:  annually
notes: This metadata was automatically generated from the FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata standard (version FGDC-STD-001-1998) using the 2015-07-24 version of the FGDC RSE to ISO 19115-2 transform.
notes: Translated from FGDC 2015-10-22T16:27:13.307-04:00
notes: Last Metadata Review Date: 2013-09-11
Metadata contact - pointOfContact
organisation Name  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
position Name Biogeography Branch, Mapping Manager
Contact information
Telephone
Voice 301-713-3028
Fax 301-723-4384
Address
1305 East West Highway, N/SCI-1, Silver Spring, MD, 20910
electronic Mail Address Matt.Kendall@noaa.gov
hoursOfService 0800 - 1700, Monday to Friday, EST
Metadata scope code  dataset
Metadata language  eng; USA
Metadata character set encoding:   utf8
Metadata standard for this record:  ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data
standard version:  ISO 19115-2:2009(E)
Metadata record identifier:  59d2f39b-1c9c-426a-b58d-4d088ddc6e34

Metadata record format is ISO19139-2 XML (MI_Metadata)