Project Background

Mapseagrass was realized by Special Monitoring and Coastal Environmental Assessment Regional Activity Centre (CEARAC) of the Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP), a part of Regional Sea Programme of United Nation Environment Program, as a result of long-term collaboration between NOWPAP and UNESCO IOC Sub-Commission for Western Pacific (IOC-WESTPAC).  IOC-WESTPAC started Remote Sensing for Integrated Coastal Area Management in 1996 and reformed it to Ocean Remote Sensing for Coastal Habitat Mapping Project (ORSP) in 2008. IOC-WESTPAC ORSP, which has focused on seagrass mapping, standardized mapping methods, especially water column correction and has mapped seagrass meadows in ORSP members’ states. IOC-WESTPAC ORSP has shared the methods and experiences with NOWPAP CEARAC since 2011. CEARAC has been developing a monitoring tool for assessment of marine environment since 2002.

Mapseagrass provides a cloud-based mapping tool Seagrass Mapper for detecting seagrass habitats using satellite remote sensing techniques. This tool was constructed by NOWPAP CEARAC, following the suggestion to use cloud computing technology for analysis of satellite images to reduce time and costs for mapping distribution of seagrass, which was given in the Feasible Study for Assessment of Seagrass Distribution in the NOWPAP Region (NOWPAP CEARAC, 2018)

Objectives of Mapseagrass are to share and utilize the same knowledge of seagrass distribution to conserve and/or recover seagrass beds among various stakeholders not only researchers/scientists but also governments, citizens, fisheries and/or policy makers, and to promote public awareness on conservation/restoration of seagrass beds.