Reef scientists across the Pacific and in the Maldives have worked together to create ReefCloud, an open-access digital tool that uses machine learning and advanced analysis to rapidly extract and share data from images of coral reefs anywhere in the world.
Launched on the eve of the Our Ocean Conference in Palau, ReefCloud allows the world’s coral reef monitoring community to work together, in almost real time, by standardising data collected from around the world and analysing coral reef composition with 80-90 percent accuracy 700 times faster than traditional manual assessment.
This automation of data can save weeks and months of labour and free precious reef management resources and democratises reef information.
ReefCloud was developed by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in collaboration with the Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Fiji, ICRI, University of South Pacific, Queensland University of Technology, Marine Ecology Consulting, Maldives Marine Research Institute and C2O Pacific, with in kind support from Accenture.
ReefCloud is also partnering with ICRI’s operational network, the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) to support a transformation in coral reef monitoring.
For more information: https://reefcloud.ai
