Abstract

Marine habitat maps are fundamental for the management of marine resources, but are not routinely available in the small island states of the Caribbean, due largely to the cost traditionally associated with production of these maps. Further-more, existing habitat maps, even within country, are rarely compatible since they have usually been created for different purposes using different habitat schemes, different mapping resolutions and different methods Mumby and Harborne (1999). This makes it very difficult to piece together maps over sufficiently large enough areas to inform national-level marine spatial planning. The application of modern remote sensing technologies, together with a geographical information system (GIS) and strategic ground-truthing now means that marine habitat maps can be produced over larger geographical areas with better accuracy and lower budgets than previously possible. In this study, I describe the application of relatively inexpensive methods to conduct an extensive ground-truthing video survey and analysis to support remote-sensing at an island-wide scale, in order to produce a comprehensive shallow (to a depth of 40 m) marine habitat map for the island of Barbados.

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