Case Study: The Nature Conservancy achieves Caribbean-wide, high-resolution benthic habitat maps with Trimble eCognition

Scientists use Trimble technology to develop first-ever, Caribbean-wide benthic habitat maps

The Nature Conservancy’s Caribbean Division, working with technology partners, faced a pressing conservation challenge: the Caribbean has lost roughly 60% of its healthy coral and managers lacked up-to-date, large‑area benthic habitat maps needed for monitoring, restoration and marine planning. Having previously used Trimble’s eCognition for small reef areas, TNC sought a scalable method to map hundreds of thousands of reefs across the basin.

Using Trimble eCognition OBIA with Planet Dove 4‑m imagery and bathymetry (and support from Tama Group and academic partners), the team automatically classified 13 benthic habitat types across the entire shallow Caribbean in about four months, exporting vector shapefiles for quality control. The resulting high‑resolution maps now cover 23 jurisdictions and are available through online atlases, giving resource managers accurate baselines for monitoring, modeling and targeted conservation action.

The Nature Conservancy

Steve Schill

Lead Scientist and Marine Conservation Specialist