Darwin Harbour Seabed Habitat Mapping Program

Geoscience Australia, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and the Northern Territory Government collaborated on a seabed mapping program in the Darwin-Bynoe Harbour region from 2015 to 2018. The project, funded by the INPEX-operated Ichthys LNG Project, acquired baseline environmental data over 1978 km² to create habitat maps for marine resource management. Data collection utilized multibeam echosounders, sub-bottom profilers, underwater cameras, and grab samplers across four marine surveys totaling 247 days.

Use Cases

• Creating marine habitat maps based on multibeam echosounder and underwater camera data.
• Informing environmental impact assessments using baseline sedimentology and geochemistry data.
• Studying seabed morphology and processes from bathymetry and sub-bottom profiler surveys.
• Supporting marine spatial planning with geospatial data on biodiversity and environmental baselines.

Strengths

• Covers a large, specific geographic area of 1978 km², with 1754 km² mapped via multibeam.
• Data was collected over a substantial period, involving 247 survey days across four marine surveys.
• Represents a multi-institutional collaboration between major Australian scientific and government bodies.

Limitations

• Column names and specific data structure are not provided in the available metadata.
• The dataset's license, exact file formats beyond HTML, and row counts are unspecified.
• Metadata shows a conflict in 'last updated' dates (2026-04-20 vs 2026-03-25), suggesting potential synchronization issues.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), Northern Territory Government Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Collection Method

Data acquired through collaborative marine surveys using multibeam echosounders, sub-bottom profilers, underwater cameras, and grab samplers.

Time Range

2015 to 2018

Freshness

2026-04-20 00:55:21.935241

Geography

Darwin-Bynoe Harbour region, Greater Darwin, tropical northern Australia.