Model Natural Ecosystems provides AI‑driven tools that transform massive marine data into detailed, sub‑centimeter reef models and actionable health metrics. Users can upload footage from cameras, drones, or ROVs to generate georeferenced orthomosaics, bathymetry maps, and species analyses that inform precise restoration and monitoring decisions. The platform supports research institutions and conservation projects by delivering real‑time insights such as rugosity, coral cover, and early disease warnings.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Coral reef monitoring and restoration require high‑resolution spatial data and detailed health metrics, but acquiring, processing, and analyzing such data is labor‑intensive, costly, and often limited to specialized equipment and expertise.
Solution
Model Natural Ecosystems offers an AI‑driven platform that ingests petabytes of marine imagery and sensor data—from consumer cameras, drones, ROVs, and hyperspectral systems—to automatically generate sub‑centimeter 3‑D orthomosaics, bathymetry maps, and georeferenced models of reef habitats. The platform extracts quantitative health indicators such as rugosity, benthic cover, species composition, and outplant growth, and integrates these metrics with video, eDNA, acoustics, and environmental data to model ecosystem dynamics and threats. Researchers and restoration teams can visualize reefs in immersive web viewers, track changes over time, and derive actionable insights for conservation planning. The service also supports open data sharing under CC BY 4.0, enabling broader community access to reef observations.
Target Audience
Primary customers are marine researchers, conservation NGOs, and reef restoration projects that need scalable, high‑resolution mapping and analytics for coral ecosystems.
Features
- Automated photogrammetry pipeline that produces sub‑centimeter resolution orthomosaics and depth‑elevation maps from any camera source
- AI‑based analysis of structural complexity (rugosity, fractal dimension), benthic composition, and species identification down to genus level
- Outplant monitoring tools that segment, label, and calculate growth and survival rates without additional manual effort
- Global analytics dashboard for cross‑reef trend analysis, disease detection, and restoration ROI assessment
- Fusion of 3‑D models with video, eDNA, acoustic, and environmental datasets to model ecosystem dynamics and ecosystem‑service valuation
- Secure, cloud‑hosted processing with data ownership retained by the user and optional open‑data sharing under CC BY 4.0
- Exportable visualizations, fly‑through videos, and embeddable 3‑D models for stakeholder communication and fundraising