Exploring Coral Reefs with Interactive Geospatial Visualizations

Abstract

This project uses geospatial data to generate custom polygons in an interactive setting to represent the size and location of coral reefs to extract insights from coral reef-centered data sets. Historically, the data used by the Reef Restoration Group Bonaire exists in disparate sources, making it difficult to track and analyze the outcomes of their restoration work. Additionally, this information is not available in a digestible format for other audiences who would be interested in this data, such as citizen scientists seeking coral reef health statistics, the general public wanting to better understand the coral reefs surrounding Bonaire or recreational scuba divers interested in learning more about potential dive sites. Numerous data points were extracted for each reef in scope, largely from two data sources to highlight the efforts of the Reef Restoration Group Bonaire and biodiversity of each reef. These data elements were visualized using Tableau, an interactive data visualization software, which provided the vehicle for the exploration and interaction with the data. The development of the custom Tableau interface and geospatial polygons representing the coral reefs, allowed for an interactive user experience for exploration and analysis of the health and biodiversity of each reef by plotting these polygons on a world map. The outcome gave the precise location and size for each reef allowing for the identification of reef boundaries using latitude and longitude coordinates as the polygon vertices. These outcomes indicate there is a tangible benefit possible by representing geospatial data in an interactive environment for data analysis and extraction of insights.