Virtual Reef DiverThe aim of the project was to develop an integrated citizen-science platform, which could be used to engage with citizens to better monitor and manage the GBR.
The software platform allows crowd-sourced 2-D imagery taken by recreational and professional divers to be uploaded and geo-located within an existing digital map. Online classification modules were developed to allow regular citizens to classify benthic habitat (e.g. hard coral, algae, sand) in the images. We combined this expert "prior information" with coral cover monitoring data from multiple professional monitoring groups to build spatio-temporal predictive models used to 1) gain a better understanding of the ecosystem, 2) inform spatially explicit management decisions, and 3) guide future data collection. |