Scleractinian coral communities of Hormuz Island in the PersianGulf

The abundance and health of scleractinian coral communities of Hormuz Island were investigated.For this purpose,we employed 20 m line intercept transects—12 in the intertidal zone and 15 subtidally to evaluate coral cover and community composition.The estimated dead coral coverage was 6.21%±0.81%,while live coral coverage was 16.93%±1.81%,considered as very poor.Totally,12 genera were recorded,of which Porites with 11.9%±1.4%live cover was the dominant,while Goniopora had the least cover(0.07%±0.08%).Based on Mann-Whitney U-test,live coral coverage,dead coral coverage,algal coverage,cover of other benthic organisms and abiotic components showed significant univariate differences between zones(p<0.05).The Spearman correlation test between the abundance of biotic and abiotic components indicated significant negative correlation of live coral and sand with zoantharian and significant positive correlation of algae and other benthic organisms with rubble.The reef health indices used for the corals indicated that,in general,the environmental conditions were not suitable,which could be attributed to both natural and anthropogenic factors,the most important of which was zoantharian’overgrowth on the scleractinian corals in this region.

Land Suitability Evaluation to Determine the Appropriate Areas of Development: A Case Study of Hormuz Island

One of the basic prerequisites for the development of spatial programs and policies is evaluating the land suitability for future land uses based on the principals of ecological sustainability. This analysis is critical in islands due to special characteristics such as limited natural resources, interdependent and more complex ecosystems, high vulnerability to natural hazards, climate change and economic vulnerability. Accordingly, this paper based on the ecological approach and using Geographic Information System software package and Analytic Hierarchy Process and developing appropriate criteria has analyzed the land suitability of Hormuz Island. The findings clearly show the land suitability to develop industrial, agriculture, tourism land uses and can be the basis for planning the future development of the island based on the ecological sustainability.

Evaluating pixel-based vs.object-based image analysis approaches for lithological discrimination using VNIR data of WorldView-3

The object-based against pixel-based image analysis approaches were assessed for lithological mapping in a geologically complex terrain using Visible Near Infrared(VNIR)bands of WorldView-3(WV-3)satellite imagery.The study area is Hormuz Island,southern Iran,a salt dome composed of dominant sedimentary and igneous rocks.When performing the object-based image analysis(OBLA)approach,the textural and spectral characteristics of lithological features were analyzed by the use of support vector machine(SVM)algorithm.However,in the pixelbased image analysis(PBIA),the spectra of lithological end-members,extracted from imagery,were used through the spectral angle mapper(SAM)method.Several test samples were used in a confusion matrix to assess the accuracy of classification methods quantitatively.Results showed that OBIA was capable of lithological mapping with an overall accuracy of 86.54%which was 19.33%greater than the accuracy of PBIA.OBIA also reduced the salt-and-pepper artifact pixels and produced a more realistic map with sharper lithological borders.This research showed limitations of pixel-based method due to relying merely on the spectral characteristics of rock types when applied to high-spatial-resolution VNIR bands of WorldView-3 imagery.It is concluded that the application of an object-based image analysis approach obtains a more accurate lithological classification when compared to a pixel-based image analysis algorithm.