Identification Acroporidae and Favidae by a newly approach called Reef Identification Knowhow...

With an increase on coral reefs vulnerability worldwide, an efficient and an integrated monitoring technique are required. Photographic and video methods are now becoming more attractive rather than conventional technique to optimize diver time. In this research, the level of effectiveness of RIKA-R3DI method was evaluated using Agisoft Photoscan. The method was based on the reconstructed images in three dimensional image assisted by a computer with Agisoft Photoscan to facilitate data processing. This research aims to identify Acroporidae and Favidae as the models of coral reef-building species. The samples were collected from the waters of Beralas Pasir Island, Bintan Regency. Visual engineering was conducted in the form of 3D viewing with attention to the corallite shape and size, as well as the color of the corals. The result was successful in identifying 4 species, i.e. Acropora microphthalma, A. sarmentosa, Favia maritima, F. vietnamensis. The keys benefit of this methodologies are: •The RIKA-R3DI method allows to reduce diving time during direct visual observation.•The method has high accuracy and is non-invasive, since it does not touch directly to the coral.•The application of RIKA-R3DI can be used to identified the coral species and evaluate the coral health status base on the percent coverage.