Benefits of water column correction and contextual editing for mapping coral reefs

Classification accuracy of coral reefs can be increased significantly by compensation for light attenuation in the water column and contextual editing to account for generic patterns of reef distribution. Both processes are easily implemented and collectively constitute an accruement in accuracy of 22 per cent for airborne multispectral imagery (CASI) and up to 17 per cent for satellite sensor imagery, for each extra days effort using the technique (up to maximum accuracies of 89 and 73 per cent respectively).