AusSeabed: Australian Seabed Mapping Coordination and Data

AusSeabed is a national seabed mapping coordination program for Australia's marine jurisdiction, which covers over 10 million square kilometres. The program, facilitated by Geoscience Australia, involves a consortium of government, university, and industry representatives from Australia and New Zealand. It aims to address limited coordination and data duplication by developing guidelines, a priority plan, and a cloud-based data sharing infrastructure.

Use Cases

• Plan seabed survey acquisition based on the government priority plan and upcoming survey register.
• Analyze seabed geomorphology using a common mapping approach developed for data interpretation.
• Improve data discoverability and accessibility using the cloud-based data sharing infrastructure.
• Apply quality assurance workflows to survey planning using the program's automated tools.

Strengths

• Focuses on a jurisdiction covering over 10 million square kilometres.
• Develops standardized resources like the Australian multibeam guideline and a government priority plan.
• Aims to address a stated lack of coordination and duplication of effort in seabed mapping.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, facilitated by Geoscience Australia.

Collection Method

Collaborative program involving government, university, and industry representatives.

Time Range

Information presented at the 2018 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 17:00:04.367884; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia's marine jurisdiction, including the Antarctic Territory.