Citizen Science project wrap:  Stories of impact

Identifying a gap in reef dataset integration, Virtual Reef Diver pioneered approaches to use images of the seafloor combined with sophisticated reef habitat modelling to better connect data from citizen scientists with other research and management datasets to produce predictive coral habitat maps. 

The online platform helps to close a loop for how citizen science data can inform science and management, by enabling data from multiple programs to be analysed together. The project tackled the challenge of combining very different datasets from a few different angles.

Firstly, statistical models for the online program were enhanced to better integrate data contributed by citizens and professional monitoring teams to update and improve the predictive maps of coral cover for the 3,000 reefs of the GBR. Annual maps from 2002-2020 are now freely available to be downloaded and can be summarised to facilitate, local, regional, and GBR scale reporting products that are accessible to reef communities. 

This dataset represents one of the most extensive spatially and temporally data products available in the field and is the only one of its kind bringing diverse datasets together in this way. The ability to integrate data from many different sources helps provide a clearer picture of what’s going on across the whole of the Reef and makes the information more accessible to the broader community and for future scientific purposes. Predictive layers are planned to be used as part of the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program (RRAP) within the rubble stabilization subprogram to help estimate the current and future scale of rubble generation at the GBR scale.

Virtual Reef Diver allows statisticians and mathematicians to move beyond simple summaries of the health of the reef (“now-casting”) to more future-focused predictions (“forecasting”) of how the reef will respond to adverse impacts of climate change such as ocean warming, cyclones and bleaching, as well as human pressures such as fishing and poor water quality. Statisticians can also identify opportunities, such as those reefs that are prospering despite these impacts. In addition, the new methods developed in VRD to make citizen science ‘trustworthy’ can be used in many other contexts.