Exploratory Investigations in using Remotely Operated Vehicles to Ground Truth Underwater Resources Identified from Remotely Sensed Aerial Imagery

Antigua and Barbuda, like many other developing nations, has historically faced exploitation of its natural resources in the shadows of national progress. Activities linked to the growth of tourism, urbanization, and agriculture have resulted in reduced biodiversity, land degradation, hydrological changes, and reduced water quality. The need to protect valuable resources without stalling national development has lead to the implementation of the sustainable island resource management mechanism (SIRMM) project in the twin-island nation. The SIRMM, a project based largely upon remote sensing (RS) and geographical information systems (GIS), seeks to document the islands’ resources and will allow for integrated ecosystems management in all subsequent major development. To date, most of the terrestrial resources observed from the RS aerial imagery have been confirmed via extensive surveys. However, those resources occurring below the waves have proven much more difficult to quantify. Time-consuming, costly, and dangerous ground-truth efforts, undertaken by local unpaid fishermen, have proven largely ineffective and occur much too infrequently to provide the necessary data coverage. This paper describes the use of remotely operated vehicle (ROV) platforms, the VideoRay, made available through partnership with the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES). The paper also describes the initial explorative experience shared between UMES and the Environment Division of the government of Antigua and Barbuda in attempting to efficiently and safely build their data repository. The results of 6 confirmatory missions are also included, which corroborates that the use of such platforms can easily increase the rate at which RS aerial data can be confirmed. Also highlighted are the benefits of such collaborative research activities between institutions of higher learning with access to technologies that may be beyond the reach (due to limited technological literacy or financial constraints) of agencies in developing countries.