Facies Evolution of Australian Estuaries and Deltas

283 wave- and tide-dominated estuaries and deltas across Australia were mapped for geomorphic features and sedimentary facies. The dataset quantitatively evaluates established evolutionary models, revealing insights such as an offshore shift in sand accumulation during delta development and larger intertidal areas in wave-dominated deltas. This large-sample statistical study provides a continental-scale basis for predicting geomorphic and habitat changes.

Use Cases

• Testing established facies models for estuary-to-delta evolution based on mapped geomorphic features.
• Analyzing the relationship between tidal penetration and alluvial plain development in wave-dominated systems.
• Comparing the surface area of intertidal environments (flats, mangroves, saltmarsh) between estuaries and deltas.
• Developing notional evolutionary pathways to predict rates of geomorphic change in coastal systems.

Strengths

• Contains data from a large sample of 283 distinct coastal systems across an entire continent.
• Represents the first published continental-scale assembly of geomorphic and sedimentary data for these features.
• Supports quantitative statistical analysis, as indicated by the description of insights derived from the data.

Limitations

• Column names and specific data structure are not provided in the available metadata.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, license, and author are listed as unknown or 'None'.
• The dataset's description is repeated verbatim across multiple platform entries, suggesting potential duplication in the catalog.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, associated with an external scientific journal publication.

Collection Method

Mapping of selected geomorphic features and sedimentary facies.

Time Range

Holocene (implied by the study of evolution under stable sea level conditions).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-17

Geography

Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone (AU-EEZ), covering wave- and tide-dominated estuaries and deltas across the continent.