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Accenture helps Australian Institute of Marine Sciences (AIMS) upgrade technology – aimed at improving the monitoring and protection of coral reefs.
The project has three target outputs. One of them is the scaling of the AIMS technical infrastructure and migration to the cloud, which will enable better and faster data sharing and analysis. The second is to equip the AIMS coral reef monitoring systems with advanced technology such as artificial intelligence.
Third – signaling a long-term collaboration – Accenture will work to purposefully develop technologies to meet the diverse needs of the coral reef stakeholder ecosystem. After a period of experimentation at The Dock – Accenture’s leading global research and development center – a number of solutions for this purpose are already in the pipeline.
“This project started with a team at The Dock working to identify ways to use artificial intelligence to help the environment,” explained Richard McNiff, director of rapid innovation at The Dock.
“We began exploring new computer vision approaches to monitor coral resilience and quickly realized that by combining Accenture’s technology and design expertise with AIMS’s incredible knowledge and data, we could add real value to global reef conservation efforts. It was a hugely rewarding experience for our team to apply their skills to such an important topic.”
The necessity of preservation
And the topic is important from several points of view. Most of the scientific community agrees that coral reefs are dying – primarily at the hands of climate change-induced phenomena such as warmer sea temperatures, tropical storms, ocean acidification and pollution. According to Accenture, 75% of global coral reefs are under threat, destroying habitat and threatening a quarter of the world’s marine life.
Environmental damage aside, reefs also provide food and livelihoods for one billion people worldwide, according to the consultancy. As the largest coral reef in the world, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is at the epicenter of this development – providing tens of thousands of jobs for Australians.
“The Great Barrier Reef is of significant value to Australia in terms of its natural beauty, but also the economic value it contributes to the Australian economy,” said Tara Brady, Accenture’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand.
A 2017 Deloitte report estimated the economic value of the Great Barrier Reef at $56 billion. According to a BBC report last year, the reef has lost half of all its coral since 1995. Protection is essential, and new technology is supposed to help with that.
“The use of cloud computing, real-time analytics and other emerging technologies to support the valuable work provided by organizations such as AIMS will be vital to protecting the reef now and into the future,” Brady added.
Manuel Gonzalez Rivero, a senior researcher at AIMS, expressed his confidence in the project. “Through our collaboration with Accenture, we aim to bring innovative and transformative change to the way we monitor our reefs. The purposeful development of these technologies will benefit nations around the world to achieve efficiencies in coral reef monitoring and support integrated efforts to better manage our reef systems.
Preserving the barrier reef is one of many urgent initiatives needed in Australia’s fight against climate change – which experts say could cost the country $3.4 trillion by 2070 if no action is taken.
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