Spectral Clustering of Coral Reefs on the Small Islands, Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia

Abstract

Ecologically, coral reef has a function to protect the others component of marine and coastal ecosystem from pressure of wave and storm. If compared with the other ecosystems, coral reef that are most easily destroyed. Spermonde archipelago consist of more than one hundred small islands, which have the higher potential ecosystem especially of coral reef distribution. It is very influencing and provide higher contributes to the preservation of society, where most livelihoods depend on its shallow water and has high growing human activity. Remote Sensing technologies is an alternative to support the availability of spatial information resources, such as coral reefs in the large area. However, before remote sensing can be viewed as a practical monitoring and diagnostic tool for entire coral communities, there is a need to understand the spectral responses from individual coral.The aim of this study is identifying the spectral reflectance of coral reefs using hyperspectral data, it is expected that they can be used as references in discriminating healthy coral. Spectral reflectance data was collected in Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia by using a hyperspectral radiometer. Correlation and cluster analysis support that distinct differences in reflectance spectra among categories existed. The analysis result of hyperspectral data shown that live corals, dead corals covered with alga and coral rubble are spectrally separable from each other.