NCORE National Center for
Caribbean Coral Reef Research University of Miami - Rosenstiel School of Marine
and Atmospheric Science
4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149
GIS Initiatives
In keeping with NCORE's
mission to bring the management of coral reefs and their associated ecosystems
into the 21st century, we will build upon recent developments in GIS
and incorporate these into broadly-accessible models that can be disseminated
widely. The development of two-dimensional digital maps provided resource
managers enhanced depictions of the horizontal spread of resources (and their
surrounding environments). However, they are unable to provide good
visualizations of the vertical composition of the area. Thus, the development of
highly, interactive three-dimensional (3D) maps is at the heart of our GIS
initiative. Implementation of the GIS
initiative will include: (1) the collection of geo-corrected and geo-referenced
satellite images and digital maps; (2) ground-truthing and the development of
the 3D models; and (3) the dissemination of the products in a form that will
allow researchers and scientists to overlay additional layers of geo-referenced
dynamic data in support of regional environmental management.
Coupled with an overlay of
dynamically simulated ecological agents, 3D digital maps will give
managers and researchers a better view on how all of the elements of the
ecosystem react to disturbances (natural or man-made) by showing the complete
spectrum of the area.
A similar effort is now
being conducted for the Bahamas through the
Bahamas Biocomplexity Project
initiated by a consortium of research institutions including NCORE. To date,
the following are some of the digital maps that are used and are available from
project sites:
* Accessing digital maps through this option is
faster and resolution is better as compared to the HTML version. However, this
version may not execute in Internet browsers that does not support Java 2
scripting. Since this option requires
ArcExplorer Java Virtual Machine,
the browser will
first test the presence of the ArcExplorer Java Virtual Machine. If
this is not installed, installation options will be provided. It may be
necessary to restart the web browser to effect the changes. For inquiries,
please contact Johnathan Kool.
Please contact
NCORE to access higher resolution
maps or other digital maps.