Reef Cloud
The Australian Institute of Marine Science’s ReefCloud is an open-access platform that provides a fast, up-to-date snapshot of coral reef condition to inform reef management decisions.
Using machine learning and advanced analysis, ReefCloud rapidly extracts information from images of coral reefs anywhere in the world. It quickly and efficiently collates this data, which can be shared.
ReefCloud standardises collected data, analysing coral reef composition with 80-90 percent accuracy. It is 700 times faster than in-water manual assessments. This saves weeks and months of labour, freeing precious reef management resources.
It allows users to easily understand the impacts of environmental stresses on coral reefs by delivering accurate and compatible data between users, across regions, to collaboratively support coral reef conservation.
The user-friendly platform is transforming coral reef monitoring and management by allowing the world’s coral reef monitoring community to work together, in real time.
What can users do with the resource?
- Collect and manage monitoring images
Users submit photos of a reef with associated data such as location, date, habitat and depth, to help rapidly assess the reef’s condition. An automated pipeline secures and organises this data. There are options to share the data at multiple levels to foster collaboration between scientists and organisations.
- Analyse and automatically annotate images using AI
ReefCloud is designed to machine-learn from experts to automate image analysis and quickly and efficiently extract relevant information such as coral cover and reef composition. This helps scientists to validate automated methods, increase data analysis efficiency, and extract advanced taxonomic details from images.
- Synthesise insights and view automatically updated reports
Interactive dashboards, report cards and data access tools enable rapid interpretation, reporting and communication of coral reef conditions across regions.
- Share, collaborate and conserve
Users can manage and share data to collaborate and generate robust and timely advice for managing coral reefs. Better and more readily available knowledge supports smarter decisions to protect our coral reefs now and in the future.
Use case example:
Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), is dedicated to environmental conservation and sustainable development in the province of Palawan, in the Philippines. It’s mission is to protect, conserve and effectively manage Palawan’s coral reefs.
PCSD adopted ReefCloud to monitor and provide real-time data on coral reef conditions, to inform local reef management in the face of increasing impacts of climate change and local pressures.
In 2023, PCSD, along with other Palawan Province partners, was trained to use ReefCloud as well as Australian Institute of Marine Science’s ReefScan Transom marine monitoring technology.
The ReefScan Transom can be attached to a boat to take autonomously take underwater images to assess large reef areas.
These digital reef monitoring systems enhanced the coral reef monitoring capacity of PCSD.
Images collected from ReefScan are transferred to ReefCloud to extract coral reef data to inform management decisions.
Currently, coral reef data (local, provincial, and national datasets) in the Philippines are held in separate locations. PCSD is using ReefCloud to bring these datasets together to provide a more comprehensive picture of the state of Palawan’s reefs, to inform sustainable management decisions.
ReefCloud provides safe cloud storage for all coral reef monitoring data, in a central location. Users can customise the privacy settings on data accessibility.