Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Park Satellite-Derived Bathymetry and Seafloor Habitat Maps

A 2022 project mapped Satellite-derived Bathymetry (SDB) and seafloor habitats at 2-meter horizontal spatial resolution for shallow waters (0-25 m) of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Park. The data was processed by EOMAP using proprietary software and physics-based inversion methods on multispectral satellite imagery. These geospatial layers provide a baseline for monitoring and managing the Indian Ocean Territories Marine Parks.

Use Cases

• Modeling coastal erosion and sediment transport based on high-resolution bathymetry.
• Classifying and monitoring benthic habitats for conservation planning based on spectral seafloor reflectance.
• Supporting ecological research on coral reef and seagrass distribution based on habitat type maps.
• Assessing climate change impacts on shallow marine environments based on baseline environmental data.

Strengths

• Data has a 2-meter horizontal spatial resolution, suggesting high detail.
• Covers shallow waters from approximately 0 to 25 meters depth.
• Processed using a proprietary physics-based inversion method (Watcor-X) for bathymetry.
• Provides both bathymetric depth and thematic seafloor habitat classification.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and total dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The description explicitly states the dataset is not to be used for navigational purposes.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data, produced under a Parks Australia - Indian Oceans Territory (IOT) Grants Project.

Collection Method

Satellite-derived data processed using EOMAP's proprietary Watcor-X software and algorithm package, applying physics-based inversion and object-based image classification.

Time Range

Acquisition dated 2022-03-29.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 19:15:04.236539; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Cocos (Keeling) Islands Marine Park, Indian Ocean.