Benthic Coral Reef Images for Structure from Motion Analysis, U.S. Pacific Since 2019

Since 2019, photographs have been collected using a Structure from Motion approach during in-water surveys across the U.S. Pacific. Surveys were funded by NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program and conducted by NOAA Fisheries Ecosystem Sciences Division. The imagery provides information on coral identification, abundance, planar area, and can track the fate of individual colonies.

Use Cases

• Tracking coral colony fate over time based on repeated imagery of fixed sites.
• Analyzing juvenile and adult coral abundance based on taxonomic identification from imagery.
• Measuring planar area of reef habitat based on photogrammetric products.
• Assessing bleaching impact and recovery based on imagery from specific sites in the Main Hawaiian Islands.

Strengths

• Images collected at fixed sites ranging from 9-16 meters depth, providing consistent environmental context.
• Surveys cover approximately 100 m2 of reef habitat per site, offering a standardized area for analysis.
• High overlap between images is designed to produce Structure from Motion products.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data format is PDF, which may not be the raw imagery format and could limit direct analysis.
• A subset of imagery from 2021 uses a different method ('tiles' vs 'markers') and is stored separately.

Provenance

Source

NOAA Fisheries Ecosystem Sciences Division, with collaborators from Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Collection Method

Diver-collected photographs using Structure from Motion approach, swimming approximately 1 m off the seafloor.

Time Range

Since 2019, with specific efforts from 2019 to 2021.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-14 23:04:34.812302; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Fixed sites across the U.S. Pacific, including the Main Hawaiian Islands (Lana'i, O'ahu, Hawai'i).