A study of coral reef mapping by using remote sensing technology around Lang Tengah Island, Terengganu

Abstract

Coral reefs are unique ecosystem that brings a lot of benefits to the environment and even thought to human beings. However, most of the coral reefs ecosystem had been threatened, exploitation and destroyed. Hence, monitoring and management is very important to understand and know the distribution of coral reefs. This study was conducted at Lang Tengah Island, Terengganu to monitor the coral reefs distribution around the island. QuickBird Image was used as it has fined spatial resolution which suitable for benthic habitats mapping. The mapping processes were done by using unsupervised and supervised classification. Maximum Likelihood classification, Parallelepiped classification and Minimum Distance to Means classification had been used for the supervised classification. Besides, comparison these 3 classifications within 3 bands (Red, Green and Blue Bands) had done. The Band 2 is the optimum band for benthic habitats study with the accuracy of 92% by Kappa Coefficient accuracy assessment. Among three classification algorithm, Maximum Likelihood Classification is the most accurate than others. Further studies of coral reefs mapping are essential to carry on time to time for future knowledge about the coral reef distribution at Lang Tengah Island.