Spatial distribution of benthic habitats in Kapota Atoll (Wakatobi National Park, Indonesia) using remote sensing imagery

Abstract

Abstract. Hamuna B, Pujiyati S, Gaol JL, Hestirianoto T. 2023. Spatial distribution of benthic habitats in Kapota Atoll (Wakatobi National Park, Indonesia) using remote sensing imagery. Biodiversitas 24: 3700-3707. This study aims to classify and map benthic habitats in Kapota Atoll, Wakatobi National Park, using Sentinel-2A satellite imagery, that has undergone both atmospheric and geometric corrections. Sentinel-2A satellite imagery was processed using pixel-based classification method. This study used two machine learning algorithms: support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF). This study used nine classified benthic habitat classes, namely five homogeneous benthic classes (sand, live coral, dead coral, rubble, and dense seagrass) and four mixed benthic classes (mixed rubble and sand, mixed sand and rare seagrass, mixed medium seagrass and sand, and a mixture of rubble, dead coral, and seagrass). The RF algorithm produced benthic habitat maps with a higher overall accuracy than the SVM algorithm, which was 65.31% and 63.51%, respectively. These accuracy values have met the standards of accuracy for mapping benthic habitats that apply in Indonesia. The SVM algorithm classification results showed that the benthic habitat of the mixed class of medium seagrass and sand was more dominant than other benthic habitat classes. In contrast, the RF algorithm showed the class dense seagrass was more dominant. The selection of the appropriate algorithm for processing satellite imagery was found to be a significant factor in producing an accurate benthic habitat map.