Benthic Habitats of the Florida Keys derived from color aerial photography collected between 1991-12 and March 1992 (NCEI Accession 0143928)

This project was a cooperative effort between the National Ocean Service and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Florida Marine Research Institute (now called the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute). The goal of the effort was to produce shallow-water (from 0 to approximately 30 m water depth) benthic habitat maps of the Florida Keys and adjacent waters.

The maps were generated by expert visual interpretation of 1:48,000 scale color aerial photography and subsequent photogrammetric, stereo, digital compilation of interpreted habitat polygon boundaries from aerial photography. The Minimum mapping unit = 0.4 hectare (4,047 sq m; 1 acre) for all habitat. Patch reefs may be <0.5 ha. The aerial photography was acquired using a NOAA jet from December 1991 through March 1992. The photography was acquired with 60% side and 80% forward overlap to facilitate stereo compilation. Approximately 450 aerial photographs were acquired and used for the mapping project. Ground validation of interpreted habitat polygons was performed by visual verification at actual field sites prior to compilation. Aircraft Inertial Measurement Unit data were used to correct photography positioning in photogrammetric analytical plotters. The analytical solution used in the photogrammetric plotter for positioning was applied to bundles of 30-40 adjacent, overlapping aerial photographs. The stereo positioning of the photography was < 1 m. Digital data for bundles of compiled aerial photographs from the photogrammetric stereo plotter was imported into the ESRI ArcInfo GIS. The GIS was used to merge and edit the vector and attribute features of the 15 bundles to generate a mosaic benthic habitat map of the Florida Keys and adjacent areas covered by the aerial photography. Field validation of digitized habitat features visible in the aerial photography mosaics was performed to ensure correct interpretation. An assessment of the correctness of the interpreted digital map was performed by experts familiar with the the seafloor habitat found in the Florida Keys.

本项工程为美国国家海洋服务局与佛罗里达州环境保护局下属的佛罗里达海洋研究学院（现更名为鱼类和野生动物研究学院）的合作成果。项目旨在生成佛罗里达群岛及其邻近海域浅水（水深0至约30米）底栖生境图。地图通过专家对1:48,000比例尺彩色航空摄影的视觉解读，以及后续对从航空摄影中解读出的生境多边形边界的摄影测量、立体、数字化汇编而生成。所有生境的最小制图单元为0.4公顷（4,047平方米；1英亩），而碎礁可能小于0.5公顷。航空摄影于1991年12月至1992年3月期间，使用NOAA喷气式飞机获取，拍摄时侧向重叠60%，前方重叠80%，以便利立体汇编。大约450张航空摄影被获取并用于制图项目。在汇编前，通过实际现场点的视觉验证对解读出的生境多边形进行了地面验证。航空惯性测量单元数据被用于在摄影测量分析绘图仪中校正摄影定位。在摄影测量绘图仪中用于定位的分析解决方案应用于30-40张相邻、重叠的航空摄影束。摄影的立体定位误差小于1米。从摄影测量立体绘图仪汇编的航空摄影束的数字数据被导入ESRI ArcInfo地理信息系统。地理信息系统被用于合并和编辑15个束的矢量属性特征，生成覆盖在航空摄影范围内的佛罗里达群岛及其邻近区域的镶嵌底栖生境图。对在航空摄影镶嵌中可见的数字化生境特征进行了现场验证，以确保正确的解读。由熟悉佛罗里达群岛海底生境的专家对解读出的数字地图的正确性进行了评估。