Mapping coral reef disribution at Bidong Island by quickbird satellite imaginery

Abstract

This study is an attempt to investigate the applicability of Optical satellite image for coral Mapping. The aim is to determine the coral reef distribution at Bidong Island. Mapping of coral reef using 2.4 m high resolution Quickbird satellite imagery is done at Bi dong Island that consist of Karah Island and Tengkarah Island which is location in the South China Sea. The Island is actually a Coral Reef atoll with no land insight. The image processing process consists of 6 step which are, geometric correction, atmospheric correction, water column correction, and classification and accuracy assessment. The types of substrate classification are life coral, dead coral with algae, rubble coral and sand. The reliability ofreef classification has been tested using kappa statistic of 0.2061 %. The overall accuracy of the supervised map is 41.3793% indicated the map of coral reef achieved in this study is reliable.