INTEGRATION OF REMOTE-SENSING AND SPATIAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR MAPPING BLACK MANGROVE ON THE TEXAS GULF-COAST

Black mangrove [Auicennia germinans (L.) L.] occurs at several locatio ns along the Texas gulf coast. A hard freeze in December 1989 severely damaged this species, but the extent of damage has not been determine d. Airborne color-infrared (CIR) video imagery was used with global po sitioning system (GPS) and geographic information system (GIS) technol ogies for distinguishing and mapping the current distribution of black mangrove. Black mangrove populations could be easily distinguished on CIR video imagery. The integration of a GPS with the video imagery pe rmitted latitude/longitude coordinates of black mangrove populations t o be recorded on each image. The GPS coordinates were entered into a G IS to map black mangrove populations along the Texas coast. Major blac k mangrove concentrations near Port Isabel-South Bay and Port Aransas on the lower and lower-mid Texas coast, respectively, had fully recove red from the freeze. A remnant population of an historical black mangr ove concentration on the upper-mid Texas coast near Port O'Connor, tha t was devastated by a 1983 freeze, was severely damaged and reduced in number by the 1989 freeze. The integration of videography, GPS, and G IS are valuable tools that can enable coastal resource managers to dev elop regional maps showing the distribution of black mangrove over lar ge areas.