Detection of Small Shallow-water Coral Reefs on Landsat Imagery

Large number of coral reefs in Thailand waters make the use of satellite imagery probably the only practical method for their monitoring. This paper reports the result of detecting small shallow-water coral reef by using maximum likelihood classification technique. Combination of blue/green and near-infrared band ratio are used as spectral signatures derived from a Landsat 7 imagery covering western portion of the Gulf of Thailand. Result assessment reveals accuracy significantly over 60 percent. The result is encouraging and would be a basis for further study to realize the full potential and limitation of this technique.