Australia's Maritime Jurisdiction Map for Arafura and Coral Seas

One map from the 27-constituent 'Australia's Maritime Jurisdiction Map Series'. It depicts Australia's extended continental shelf, treaties, and maritime zones in the Arafura and Coral Seas, with background bathymetry and land imagery. The map was produced by the Australian Ocean Data Network, with the continental shelf approved by the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in April 2008.

Use Cases

• Analyze the spatial extent of Australia's extended continental shelf boundary in the Arafura and Coral Seas.
• Verify treaty-defined maritime zones against bathymetric data from the 2009 9 arc-second grid and Smith and Sandwell, 1997.
• Use the background Blue Marble land imagery as a base layer for regional marine spatial planning.

Strengths

• Part of a standardized series of 27 constituent maps for national maritime jurisdiction.
• Integrates multiple authoritative data sources including a 2009 9 arc-second bathymetric grid and treaty records.
• The depicted continental shelf limits were formally approved by an international commission in 2008.

Limitations

• Data is static and provided only in PDF format, limiting machine-readability and analysis.
• The underlying bathymetric and topographic grids are from 2009 and 1997, which may not reflect recent seafloor changes.
• No attribute table or column data is provided with the map file for quantitative analysis.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, part of the 'Australia's Maritime Jurisdiction Map Series' (GeoCat 71789).

Collection Method

Cartographic compilation of legal boundaries, treaty data, and scientific grids.

Time Range

Continental shelf limits approved in April 2008; background grids from 1997 and 2009.

Freshness

Last platform update was 2026-04-04, but the core jurisdictional and bathymetric data is from 2008-2009.

Geography

Arafura Sea and Coral Sea regions within Australia's maritime jurisdiction.