GEOMAT: Continental Shelf Sediment Mobility Models for Australian Marine Planning

GEOMAT is a geological-oceanographic computer modelling project from a collaborative team including AGSO, the University of Tasmania, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and a Danish geodetic division. The project models tidal and swell-wave processes to predict sediment mobilisation on the Australian continental shelf, with results indicating wave energy mobilized fine sand over 63.5% of the shelf during a one-year period. The work provides a process-based understanding to assist marine environmental management and regional planning.

Use Cases

• Predicting sediment mobility for marine engineering projects based on modelled wave and tidal energy thresholds.
• Mapping biological habitats and communities based on inferred sediment distribution patterns.
• Supporting regional studies of pollution dispersal and accumulation based on sediment transport models.
• Informing marine environmental management and regional planning processes based on shelf region classifications.

Strengths

• Models predict swell wave energy mobilized fine sand over 63.5% of the Australian continental shelf during a specific year.
• Defines six shelf regions of relative wave and tidal energy, providing a structured classification system.
• Work was conducted by a multi-institutional collaborative team over two years.

Limitations

• Data is presented as a report (PDF/HTML); underlying model data or tabular results are not explicitly available.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Freshness should be verified; the last metadata update is 2026-04-10.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Computer modelling of tidal and surface ocean swell-wave processes.

Time Range

Modelling period includes March 1997 to February 1998.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 17:25:18.491709

Geography

Australian continental shelf