Development of an integrated geographical information system prototype for coastal habitat monitoring

This paper describes a prototype Integrated Geographical Information System (IGIS) developed for coastal habitat monitoring. It outlines the advantages and technical difficulties involved in combining specialist image processing functionality within the LaserScan IGIS software so that it could be used routinely by ecologists. The Coastal Habitat Information Monitoring System prototype set out to demonstrate the feasibility of using remotely sensed imagery for the routine mapping of important coastal habitats in the European Union. The prototype aims to provide an integrated software system to transform Earth Observation data into specialist map products. Normally such processing requires input from remote sensing scientists using specialist software and is not easily accessible to end-users. In principle, the methodology allows different satellite and airborne multi-spectral image data to be used to produce specialist coastal habitat maps. In this paper Landsat TM and IRS 1C LISS 3 data are evaluated and shown to be suitable for mapping the inter-tidal habitats of the Wash estuary on the East Coast of England. A strategic objective of study was to test the feasibility of incorporating all the processing functionality into a single integrated geographical information system. The project concluded satellite data from existing sensor systems can provide habitat data at a good level of detail but that to develop a fully operational processing capability would require considerable development of even the most advanced of the existing commercially available IGIS software package. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.