Millennium Coral Reef Mapping Project
Websites - Thematic website
The Institute for Marine Remote Sensing (IMaRS) at the University of South Florida (USF) is funded by the Oceanography Program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to provide an exhaustive worldwide inventory of coral reefs using high-resolution satellite imagery by the summer of 2005. By using a consistent dataset of high-resolution (30 meter) multispectral Landsat 7 images acquired between 1999 and 2002, USF intends to characterize, map and estimate the extent of shallow coral reef ecosystems in the main coral reef provinces (Caribbean-Atlantic, Pacific, Indo-Pacific, Red Sea). The program aims to highlight similarities and differences between reef structures at a scale never before considered by traditional work based on field studies. We believe the data set generated by this research program will be critical for comparative geochemical, biological and geological studies. It will provide a reliable, spatially very well constrained data set for biogeochemical budgets, biodiversity assessment, reef structure comparisons and will also provide critical information for reef managers in terms of reef location, distribution and extent, since this basic information is still of high priority for scientists and managers.
Link: 