Mapping of the corals around Hendorabi Island (Persian Gulf), using WorldView-2 standard imagery coupled with field observations

High spatial resolution WorldView-2 (WV2) satellite imagery coupled with field observations have been utilized for mapping the coral reefs around Hendorabi Island in the northern Persian Gulf. In doing so, three standard multispectral bands (red, green, and blue) were selected to produce a classified map for benthic habitats. The in-situ observations were included photo-transects taken by snorkeling in water surface and manta tow technique. The satellite image has been classified using support vector machine (SVM) classifier by considering the information obtained from field measurements as both training and control points data. The results obtained from manta tow demonstrated that the mean total live hard coral coverage was 29.04% ± 2.44% around the island. Massive corals poritiids (20.70%) and branching corals acroporiids (20.33%) showed higher live coral coverage compared to other corals. Moreover, the map produced from satellite image illustrated the distribution of habitats with 78.1% of overall accuracy.