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The Turks and Caicos Islands Terrestrial Habitat Map (2020)

The dataset comprises a ‘living’ terrestrial habitat map for the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), used to support conservation monitoring and provide firm evidence for policy development and planning. The diverse habitats of the Turks and Caicos Islands support many rare, threatened and endemic species, but are at risk from the impacts of development and climate change. The ‘living maps’ concept (different to the Living Maps Method), allows for the habitat map to be refined using ecological knowledge over time, so that misclassifications can be corrected, and any changes to the landscape recorded. This is the most recent version of the map from 2020-04-16.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated March 16, 2023, 21:03 (UTC)
Created April 9, 2021, 17:46 (UTC)
Region TC
Language eng
Topic Category Biota; flora and/or fauna in natural environment
Temporal Extent Start 2018-04-01
Temporal Extent End 2020-04-16
Dataset Reference Date 2020
Lineage The habitat map was produced using object-based image analysis. OBIA involves segmenting imagery by grouping pixels based on homogeneity criteria to form objects, then classifying those objects based on their spectral and geometric properties, their relationships to other objects and to contextual data. Image segmentation was carried out using Trimble eCognition version 9.2.1 and the multispectral segmentation algorithm was used. The classification method chosen for the generation of the habitat map was the Living Map Method developed by Natural England. The LMM uses Random Forests, an ensemble classifier that creates a number of classification and regression trees, each trained by a subset of training data with randomly sampled variables. The first iteration of the habitat map was refined by JNCC in consultation with ecological experts in the TCI. This involved carrying out manual knowledge-based corrections of misclassifications and adding classes that could not be detected from EO data. The total area changed through manual editing was 204.6km2 which was 20% of the total map area. The second iteration of the map was refined by Environment Systems using manual Aerial Photo Interpretation following input from relevant ecological experts. The total area changed through manual edits was 70.1km2, which is 7% of the total map area. For full description of methods see the JNCC Report no 664.
West Longitude 139395.6609
South Latitude 2343917.2786
East Longitude 284543.6609
North Latitude 2431773.4777
Spatial Reference System WGS84 UTM 19N
Responsible Organisation Name Hidden (personal data protection)
Contact Mail Address Hidden (personal data protection)
Responsible Party Role Hidden (personal data protection)
Access Limitations Restricted, send data request to point of contact
Use Constraints Open, but copyright and/or Intellectual Property Rights apply
Resource Reference Jones, G. & Lightfoot, P. (2020). Darwin Plus 081 Project - Mapping Terrestrial Habitats of the Turks and Caicos Islands. JNCC Report No. 664. JNCC, Peterborough, ISSN 0963- 8091.
Data Format shape
Update Frequency continual
Accuracy 2 m
Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Date 2021-04-10
Contact Consent Contact details hidden