Carnarvon Shelf Reef Polygons Digitized from 2008 Multibeam Survey

Carnarvon Shelf reef polygons were manually digitized from multibeam echosounder datasets collected on marine survey GA0308 in August/September 2008. Reef areas were defined as exposed, hard substrate often raised above the surrounding seafloor and were mapped using bathymetry, backscatter, and derivatives like slope and contours at a 1:10,000 scale. This dataset is published with the permission of the CEO, Geoscience Australia and aggregated by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Use Cases

• Modeling reef habitat distribution based on mapped hard substrate polygons.
• Analyzing seafloor geomorphology based on bathymetry and slope derivatives.
• Supporting marine conservation planning based on identified reef structures.

Strengths

• Features were mapped at a detailed scale of 1:10,000.
• Data is derived from a specific, documented marine survey (GA0308) conducted in August/September 2008.
• Includes multiple data sources for mapping: bathymetry, backscatter, slope, hillshading, and contours.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the single 2008 survey.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, via the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Manual digitization from multibeam echosounder data collected on survey GA0308.

Time Range

August/September 2008.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 18:45:33.477542; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Carnarvon Shelf.