Processing Photomosaic Imagery of Coral Reefs Using Structure-From-Motion Standard Operating Procedures
December 31, 2019
This document provides detailed procedures for collecting and processing imagery using Structure-from-Motion techniques designed to efficiently generate coral demographic and benthic community metrics across a broad spatial scale.
This document provides detailed procedures for collecting and processing imagery using Structure-from-Motion techniques developed by Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD) in collaboration with Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
These procedures are designed to efficiently generate coral demographic and benthic community metrics across the broad spatial scale of the Pacific Rapid Assessment and Monitoring Program.
This pipeline consists of four key steps:
1) Image collection by SCUBA divers
2) Data management, post-processing, and QC
3) Generating 3-D models and 2-D orthophotos in Agisoft Metashape
4) Extracting demographic data in ArcMap
This SOP is the result of comprehensive testing of different camera systems, collection techniques, and software. While the following procedures are designed to meet ESD needs, we primarily use commercially available cameras and software, making these methods adaptable based on programmatic capacity and needs.
Suka R, Asbury M, Gray A, Winston M, Oliver T, Couch C. 2019. Processing Photomosaic Imagery of Coral Reefs Using Structure-from-Motion Standard Operating Procedures. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NOAA-TM-NMFS-PIFSC-93, 54 p. https://doi.org/10.25923/h2q8-jv47.