MAPPING SUBMERGED AQUATIC VEGETATION IN ALBEMARLE SOUND, NORTH CAROLINA, USA USING LANDSAT-8 AND SONAR DATA

As one of most valuable and vulnerable resources in coastal aquatic ecosystems, submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) and its state have received great attention. There is an urgent need for coastal managers and researches to monitor and assess spatial and temporal distributions of the SAV rapidly. Because of the repetitive coverage, satellite hi-resolution images are proved to be efficient but not suitable in large-scale spatial and multiple temporal assessment due to the concern of cost. Thus, the objective of this research is to probe into the suitability of Landsat-8 OLI data in the mapping of SAV habitats at Albemarle Sound, North Carolina, USA. With SONAR data as in situ measurement, the overall accuracy based on the number (n) of SAV points detected the SONAR per cell was 66.7% if n >= 1, 68.3% when n >= 6, and 67.8% if n >= 10. The cell size was 15mx15m. Thus, the distribution of SAV beds was efficiently depicted using multi-temporal Landsat-8 data. The phenological changes of SAV were revealed.