Australian Estuary Flushing Classification with Salinity and Residence Time Data

A quantitative analysis of Australian coastal waterways using the salinity ratio Sf/So to classify five major environmental types. The dataset, from Geoscience Australia, likely contains parameters for estimating freshwater residence time, a proxy for anthropogenic input flushing. The record was last updated on 2026-04-20.

Use Cases

• Classifying coastal environment types based on the salinity ratio Sf/So described in the overview.
• Modeling freshwater residence time as a proxy for dissolved anthropogenic input flushing.
• Analyzing geographic and temporal variation in climate forcing factors like rainfall, runoff, and evaporation.
• Estimating quantities of dissolved anthropogenic inputs flushed to the sea using the inverse residence time parameter (1/T day-1).

Strengths

• Defines a quantitative framework using the salinity ratio Sf/So for classification.
• Identifies five distinct coastal environment types across Australia based on climate forcing.
• Includes a general equation for salt and water mass balances with an evaporation term.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Primary file formats are PDF and HTML, which may require extraction for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Examination and analysis of salinity ratios and mass balance equations.

Time Range

Temporal variation is discussed, but specific range is not provided.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 01:27:12.353614; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Coastal environments around Australia, including specific mentions of the eastern seaboard, western Australia, Shark Bay, South Australia, and southwestern Australia.