DEA Coastal Ecosystems

Annual time-series from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery provide the first national dataset to simultaneously map Australia's mangrove, saltmarsh, intertidal, and intertidal seagrass ecosystems. The product suite, created by Digital Earth Australia, offers consistent mapping at a continental scale. The dataset underpins environmental reporting and management efforts.

Use Cases

• Generate National Environmental Ecosystem Accounts based on mapped coastal habitat extents.
• Support State of the Environment reporting at national and regional scales using annual time-series data.
• Fill spatial and temporal gaps in higher-resolution expert mapping (e.g., from aerial surveys).
• Model coastal protection and hazards by integrating mapped ecosystem data with other terrestrial and ocean datasets.

Strengths

• Provides the first national dataset simultaneously mapping four key coastal ecosystem types for Australia.
• Uses annual time-series of Sentinel-2 satellite imagery for consistent, repeatable observation.
• Offers mapping at a 10-meter spatial resolution across a continental scale.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic or temporal bias inherent to the satellite imagery source and processing methods.

Provenance

Source

Digital Earth Australia (DEA) via the Australian Ocean Data Network on data_gov_au.

Collection Method

Derived from Earth Observation (EO) using publicly available Sentinel-2 satellite imagery.

Time Range

Annual time-series coverage; specific start and end years are not provided in the description.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 19:33:34.467906; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia, at a continental scale.