IOC/WESTPAC Workshop on “Remote Sensing for Coastal Habitat Mapping”, Johor, Malaysia, 28-30 November 2011
Background
Coastal habitats, such as seagrass meadows, seaweed bed, tidal flats and mangroves, play a pivotal role for the lives of human beings. They provide the base of food web, important feeding, shelter, breeding and nursery grounds for fish, birds and other species, improve water quality by trapping pollutant and stabilize the coastal zone from erosion, sequester CO2 through photosynthesis, and foster biodiversity etc. However, as a result of ever-increasing coastal development and climate change, coastal habitats have been decreased and degraded at an accelerating rate. To assist the sound integrated coastal zone management, it is necessary to grasp present spatial distributions of habitats with standardized mapping methods to provide baseline information for managers at different levels and to enhance the awareness of general public on how their coastal habitats are changing under human activities and climate change.
Remote sensing provides one of the most cost-effective methods to obtain information about the distributions of coastal habitats. Currently a couple of commercial and/or non commercial satellite images could be further utilized to map the coastal habitats. Some commercial satellite images have ultra-high spatial resolution optical sensors less than 4 m, however, their expensive prices always prevent us from being able to use them easily. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) provides non-commercial satellite images with ultra-high spatial resolution optical sensors (10 m), AVNIR 2. It succeeded to American satellite, LANDSAT TM with high spatial resolution optical sensors (30 m) that have been used for coastal mapping and been out of use since 2003 due to scan line corrector failure of LANDSAT 7. However, a large number of LANDSAT TM images from 1982 to 2003 had been archived. With ALOS AVNIR2 images in combination with available LANDSAT TM images, it becomes possible to analyze temporal and spatial changes in habitat distributions. Unfortunately, onboard observation devices were suddenly turned off due to power generation reduction on 22 April 2011 and ALOS mission was completed. However, JAXA archived huge data sets on ALOS AVNIR2.
The IOC Sub-Commission for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC) reformed its Ocean Remote Sensing Project (ORSP) at the Eighth Intergovernmental Session (10-13 May 2010, Bali, Indonesia), with emphasis on the application of remote sensing for integrated coastal area management. At the initial stage, the project will focus on the coastal habitat mapping, aiming to develop a cutting-edge remote sensing method to map the coastal habitats and aquaculture facilities for the WESTPAC region, and disseminate obtained scientific information to the public in order to improve the public awareness at different level on the alterations of their coastal habitats. Kick-off meeting was held in Busan, Korea, as one side workshop in the 8th IOC/WESTPAC International Scientific Symposium, 28-31 March 2011. With more than thirty participants, the workshop exchanged the knowledge on and reviewed the current status of coastal habitat mapping and sea-truthing methods in participants’ countries. The workshop decided the project should aim to map seagrass beds in each member state from various viewpoints such as important ecosystems, vulnerability of ecosystem, their distributions, human impacts including fishing activities and reclamation, contrasting areas with and without conservation measures.
Objective and Scope of the Workshop
To this end, the second workshop is designed to exchange current information on the seagrass bed mapping in each member state. Participants are requested to share their preliminary results of seagrass bed mapping by remote sensing in order to identify target coastal area for mapping seagrass beds in each participant’s state. Importantly, the workshop will aim to exchange and review seagrass beds mapping and sea-truthing methods, ameliorate and standardize these methods adapting to the WESTPAC region in this project. The workshop will discuss some appropriate outreach products on seagrass bed mapping for integrated coastal area management at the end of this project and the future activities to be carried out in the next year.
Expected Outcomes
The workshop is expected to select a common mapping method for seagrass beds targeted by each participant with efficient sea-truthing methods, and also come up with one outline for outreach materials.
Date and Venue
The workshop will be held on 28 -30 November 2011 during at the Universiti Technologi Malaysia, Johorbaru, Malaysia.
Organizing Committee
An organizing committee has been established to facilitate the preparation of this activity with the following members:
• Teruhisa Komatsu (Project Leader, Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo)
• Mohd Ibrahim Bin Seeni Mohd (Professor, Faculty of Geoinformatics, Universiti Technologi Malaysia)
• Wenxi Zhu ( Head, IOC Regional Office for the Western Pacific, Thailand)
Financial Assistance and Generic Requirements for Participants
About 10 participants from WESTPAC member countries will be fully or partially funded to attend the workshop with the support of “UNESCO-Japan Funds-in-Trust”. Priority will be given to the following applicants in the selection of funded participants:
• those who are working/studying on remote sensing of seagrass beds;
• those who are working on mapping of coastal habitats;
• those who will be able to work continuously with other members of the project;
Other self-funded scientists, who are interested in this workshop, are most welcome to participate in.
All participants are required to present their country reports on current situation on remote sensing of seagrass beds, current remote sensing and ground truthing methods that are used, ecologically important areas under human impacts and no impacts threatening seagrass beds and practice of local people conserving habitats if exits. It is strongly expected that participants will work closely for the project development as steering group members. The terms of reference of the group will be decided during the meeting.
Deadline for Application Submission
Kindly note: the deadline for Application Submission is 29 October 2011.
Contacting Address for Further Information
Dr. Teruhisa Komatsu
Division of Ecology, Behavior and Observation Systems
Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo
5-1-5, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, 277-8564, Japan
Tel: + 81 4 7136 6222
Fax: +81 4 7136 6223
E-mail: komatsu@aori.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Prof Mohd Ibrahim Bin Seeni Mohd
Faculty of Geoinformatics, Universiti Technologi Malysia
81310 UTM Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Tel: +60 7 5203043 Fax: +60 7 5566163
Email: mism@utm.my
Mr. Wenxi Zhu
Head UNESCO/IOC Regional Office for the Western Pacific
c/o Department of Marine and Coastal Resources
9th Fl., Government Complex B
120 Chaengwattana Rd, Bangkok 10210, Thailand
Tel: +66 2 1411287 Fax: +66 2 1439245
Email: w.zhu@unesco.org
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