Aquatic Substrate Library: Spectral Data for Coral Detection

Australian spectral data from the Coringa Herald region, hosted in the National Spectral Database Aquatic Library. The dataset supports remote sensing for mapping and change detection in tropical marine protected areas. It is cited in peer-reviewed research on enhancing coral detection under varying water conditions.

Use Cases

• Training spectral unmixing algorithms based on field spectroscopy end-members.
• Mapping benthic habitats in marine protected areas using spectral signatures.
• Assessing coral reef health and change detection from remote sensing imagery.
• Validating satellite-derived water quality and substrate classifications.

Strengths

• Data is part of the authoritative Australian National Spectral Database managed by Geoscience Australia.
• Peer-reviewed publication (Remote Sensing of Environment, 2013) validates the methodology and application.
• Cross-platform presence on data.gov.au indicates official recognition and stability.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: row count, column names, file size, and license are all listed as unknown or None.
• The description references a 2010 report and 2013 publication, suggesting the core data may be over a decade old.
• Access requires navigating to an external URL (cmi.ga.gov.au) for instructions, indicating potential access friction.

Provenance

Source

CSIRO Land and Water and Wealth from Oceans Flagship, Geoscience Australia.

Collection Method

Field spectroscopy, likely collected for the 'Remote Sensing for Mapping and Change Detection in Tropical Commonwealth Marine Protected Areas' project.

Time Range

Collection year referenced is 2006 (from title 'Coringa Herald 2006').

Freshness

Last updated metadata on data.gov.au: 2026-05-26.

Geography

Coringa Herald region, Australia; tropical Commonwealth Marine Protected Areas.