Integrating sentinel-2 spectral-imagery and field data of seagrass coverage with species identification in the coastal of Riau Islands, Indonesia

Seagrass plays an important role in marine ecosystem. Plans for sustainable management of ecosystem should give due attention to this critical habitat. One effort monitoring the long-term seagrass is use spatial data using remote sensing techniques. Satellite imagery offers efficient and cost-effective means estimating water conditions shallow environments. This study aims map coverage meadows satellite images spatially, determine species composition meadows, examine accuracy level from results obtained by Sentinel-2 images. Investigations reported here were conducted Riau Islands (4 Stations at Lingga Island 2 Singkep Island) Indonesia 3 - 7 October 2020. The image used acquisition year 2019 based on method Depth Invariant Index (DII) with Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification. situ observations made 6 2020, same validation date, verify through imagery. was needed calculating identifying Seagrass-Watch (Transect Quadrant). result showed that can be detected DII area 175 km2 Island. Percentage all transects estimated about 78%. seagrasses identified were: Halophila ovalis, minor, Thalassia hemprichii, dominant Enhalus acoroides.