[Skip Navigation]
Benthic Habitat Mapping
Spatial Data
Mapping Information
Resources
Funding / Partnership Information
Active Projects
Classification Standards
Benthic Habitat Mapping

Search Benthic Site:
Gulf and Caribbean Region:

Coastal Bend, Texas 2004 Benthic Data Set

Corpus Christi Bay MapThis project was initiated by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas A&M University-Center for Coastal Studies to support the statewide Seagrass Monitoring Program.

Phase I of this project covers Corpus Christi Bay, Redfish Bay, Upper Laguna Madre, Baffin Bay, and Aransas and Copano Bays (which include the new Mission Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve).  The mapping was completed by a team of private sector vendors using extensive field work and semi-automated methods.   Existing digital camera (ADS 40) imagery, originally collected for the National Agriculture Imagery Program, served as the primary source imagery to create the benthic habitat maps.   The seagrass monitoring program in Texas will use these benthic maps to help locate, monitor, and protect seagrass beds as well as shallow-water shellfish resources.

The Center provided direct funding to the project partners and private sector mapping firms as well as validation of the derived habitat data.

Mapping for Phase II of the project, San Antonio Bay, Espiritu Santo Bay, and Lower Laguna Madre, is expected to be complete in 2008.

Corpus Christi Bay, Texas 1994 SAV Data Set

Corpus Christi Bay MapThis project was initiated by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and University of Texas-Austin.

The geographic extent of the study area was the entire Corpus Christi Bay National Estuary Program including Copano Bay, Aransas Bay, Redfish Bay, Nueces Bay, Corpus Christi Bay, Baffin Bay, and Upper Laguna Madre. The SAV distribution data is used for resource management, assessing natural and man-made impacts on SAV, and as a data source for bay and estuary modeling.

Staff from the Center provided early consultation support to this effort and furnished protocols for conducting the SAV mapping.

For more information and access to the data, please visit the Texas General Land Office Web site.

 

Site Map : Acknowledgments : Terms of Use