Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Mapping in the Barnegat Bay National Estuary, Update To Year 2003

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) is a term used to describe a variety of estuarine and marine plants including seagrasses. Due to their important ecological role in many coastal ecosystems as well as their sensitivity to degraded water quality, seagrass has been widely adopted as an indicator of estuarine ecosystem health. In this study, we examine the utility of object-oriented image segmentation/classification approaches to seagrass mapping from airborne digital camera imagery. Our goal was to develop a methodology that was comparatively objective in delineating bed boundaries and characterizing seagrass density, was cost-effective and easily repeatable for future monitoring purposes. We apply this conceptual framework to the mapping and spatial analysis of seagrass beds and the broader benthic environment in Barnegat Bay-Little Egg Harbor estuary in New Jersey, USA.CRSSA Report #2004-01Principal Investigator: Richard G. Lathrop; Co-Investigators: Paul Montesano, Scott Haag; BBNEP Project Manager: Robert ScroPurpose: To map the areal extent and density of submerged aquatic vegetation within the Barnegat Bay and Little Egg Harbo