Bathymetry - Saipan Lagoon (NCCOS, 2016)

Under the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and NOAA Biogeography Branch, this dataset is a by-product of a year-long project to map the benthic habitat of the Saipan Lagoon. Multispectral satellite-derived imagery was used to produce an updated shallow-water (<30m) depth as a predictor for habitat types. The accuracy of the depth was assessed with 243 in situ depth measurements and standardized to the Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) tidal datum. These datasets can be used to make more informed decisions about sampling, permitting activities, management of marine protected areas (MPAs), land-based sources of pollution, fishery regulations, climate change, and scientific research. Dataset Citation: Kendall, M.S., B. Costa, S. McKagan and L. Johnston. 2017. Mapping Habitat Change in Saipan Lagoon, CNMI. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS NCCOS XXX. Silver Spring, MD. XXX pp. ** The original format of this dataset was in raster format. To reduce file size and credit usage as a feature service, the dataset was re-classified and was then transformed from a raster to polygon. The polygons were then dissolved by the re-classification (field: gridcode) which represents the depth. To simplify it even further, the data was merged to create depths in 2-meter intervals (gridcodes 0 and 1 were combined to display depths <2 meters).