The accelerating deterioration of coral reefs worldwide highlights the importance of efficient monitoring methods to assess their state. At present, none of the indicators used for coral reef monitoring is well accepted as reliably representing the reef community health.

A new approach developed by Ofer Ben-Tzvi and his team is based on an index termed ‘Deterioration Index’ (DI), which provides a quantitative indication of the state of reef-building coral communities. This simple and reliable method can be practiced by volunteer divers.

The team will further test and endow the approach and method to local communities for use in locally-based monitoring.