Australia's Northwest Shelf Maritime Jurisdiction Map

Australia's Maritime Jurisdiction off the Northwest Shelf is a constituent map from a 27-map series depicting national maritime zones. It shows the extended continental shelf approved by the UN Commission in April 2008, along with treaty boundaries and other maritime zones. The map background combines bathymetric data from a 2009 9-arc-second grid and a 1997 grid by Smith and Sandwell, with land imagery from NASA's Blue Marble.

Use Cases

• Delimiting maritime boundaries for legal or treaty purposes based on depicted jurisdiction lines.
• Analyzing seabed topography for resource exploration using the integrated bathymetric background.
• Referencing the officially approved 2008 continental shelf limits for regulatory compliance.
• Creating regional context maps for environmental or marine spatial planning.

Strengths

• Part of an authoritative national map series (27 maps) maintained by the Australian Ocean Data Network.
• Integrates multiple high-resolution data sources, including a 2009 9-arc-second bathymetric grid.
• Depicts legally significant boundaries, including UN-approved continental shelf limits from April 2008.

Limitations

• Core data is provided only as a static A0-sized PDF, limiting machine-readability and analysis.
• Metadata is incomplete, with no information on license, author, or underlying column/attribute structure.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates (2026-05-05 and 2026-04-10) across entries create uncertainty about versioning.

Provenance

Source

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

Collection Method

Cartographic compilation from bathymetric grids, treaty documents, and UN Commission decisions.

Time Range

Background bathymetry references data from 1997 and 2009; jurisdictional limits reference a 2008 UN decision.

Freshness

Last updated: 2026-05-05 01:19:36.938505

Geography

Northwest Shelf region of Australia, including maritime zones and the extended continental shelf.