<![CDATA[Coral reefs in Dcrawan Islands are astonishingly rich in the marine diversity. However, these reefs are threatened by humans. Destructive fishing methods, such as trawl, blasting and cyanide fishing practise, are found to be the main cause of this degradation. The coral reefs habitat reduction is also caused by tourism activities due to trampling over the reef and charging organic and anorganic wastes. The capabilities of satellite remote sensing techniques combined with field data collection have been assessed for the coral reef mapping and the change detection of Derawan Island. Multi-temporal Landsat TM and ETM images (1991 and 2002) have been used. Comparison of the classified images of 1991 and 2002 shows spatial changes of the habitat. The changes were inaccordance with the known changes in the reef conditions. The analysis shows the decrease of the coral reef and patchy seagrass percentage, while the increase of the algae composite and patchy reef percentage.]]>
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