Discover Map Algebra

By combining the water depth (bathymetry) of the bay with the measured Secchi Depth, scientists can predict where seagrasses should grow in the bay. To do so, they divide the bay up into a grid so they can calculate whether seagrass will grow at each grid point. Basically, they can do algebra on a map.

Map Algebra: Each number in the grid is multiplied by two or by one half. This is how we do map algebra. Each value in the map is multiplied by the same number.

In the model below, we multiplied the secchi depth (visibility) measurements by 0.96 to transform the values into different units to represent light compensation. We need these values for the next step in our model.