Benthic Habitat Atlas of Coastal Texas

The Atlas of Shallow-Water Benthic Habitats of Coastal Texas is a digital volume of map sheets for the Texas coastline from Pass Cavallo south to the Mexican border at South Bay. This on-line resource is intended to serve individuals who need a quick representation of benthic habitats in their area of interest. The map sheets can be printed on standard 8.5 x 11 paper and are useful for field work, planning, and other outreach activities.

The individual map sheets consist of high-resolution natural color images with an overlay of the derived benthic habitat polygons. Also included is background information on the types of habitat present in the area, methods used to derive the habitat data, and summary statistics by bay system. The map sheets are tiled according to the United States Geological Survey’s Digital Ortho Quarter Quad index.

The benthic habitat data in the atlas were developed using semi-automated methods supported by extensive field training and validation. These data are available in digital form through the Digital Coast. The Atlas was developed by the NOAA Coastal Services Center, in cooperation with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, and Fugro EarthData.

How to Use the Atlas

Pan/Zoom
Use the zoom slider tool on the left side of the map (or the mouse) to zoom to the area of interest. Alternatively, press Shift and drag the mouse on the map to zoom to an area. Press Ctrl/Shift and drag the mouse on the map to zoom out. Click and drag the map to pan.

Click
After clicking within the tiles on the map, a pop-up box will list the sheet file for that location of interest. Clicking on the data set will allow you to view and download the file.

Additional Resources

Atlas Volume (PDF, 296MB). This atlas document contains background information on the mapping effort including the classification system, mapping conventions, analysis methods, validation processes, and summary statistics by bay system.
Note: This is a large file and may take a while to download depending on your internet connection speed.
(Download the text only version here.)

Habitat Data can be downloaded from the Digital Coast Data Access Viewer or by bay system from the benthic cover FTP site. The data are provided in an ESRI shapefile format compressed using WinZip to preserve file integrity and minimize transfer time. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)-compliant metadata are provided with each .zip file.

Coastal Services Center

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration