Underwater photographic reconnaissance and habitat data collection in the Florida Keys—A procedure for ground truthing remotely sensed bathymetric data

Bathymetric geoprocessing analyses of the Florida Reef Tract have provided insights into trends of seafloor accretion and seafloor erosion over time and following major storm events. However, bathymetric surveys sometimes capture manmade structures and vegetation, which do not represent the desired bare-earth data. Therefore, ground truthing is essential to maintain the most accurate bathymetric data possible. Field procedures were developed in the Florida Reef Tract in order to quickly and accurately collect consistent imagery and habitat data across variable sites. Areas of significant elevation change were determined through elevation change analyses; these areas were targeted for ground truthing in order to check the reliability of the surveys. This report outlines the standard operating procedures for underwater photographic imagery and habitat data collection, as well as procedures for the storage of these photographs and associated metadata. These standard operating procedures ensure the reproducibility of photographic operations and habitat data collection in future field excursions, enable longitudinal visual comparisons alongside seafloor elevation change analyses, and also have the potential to be applied to similar studies in different coastal environments.