Gifford Marine Park Bathymetry Grid at 30-Meter Resolution

Geoscience Australia compiled this 30-meter resolution bathymetric grid to support the management of Australia's 58 Commonwealth marine parks, covering 40% of the nation's exclusive economic zone. The data release includes a panchromatic geotiff combining bathymetry with a hillshade image and uses a new seafloor classification scheme based on slope morphology. This research is supported by the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine Biodiversity Hub.

Use Cases

• Modeling seafloor geomorphology based on the Dove et al. (2016) slope classification scheme mentioned in the description
• Creating habitat maps for marine park management based on interpreted bathymetric data and derived products
• Supporting oceanographic studies by providing high-resolution bathymetry grids for the marine park network

Strengths

• Data is part of a national network covering 3.3 million square kilometers of marine parks
• Grids are processed at an optimum resolution based on vessel sonar systems
• Includes derived morphological surface categories (Plain, Slope, Escarpment) for analysis

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, via the Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Compiled and processed from Geoscience Australia's bathymetry data holdings, gridded based on vessel sonar systems.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 21:27:42.883920; freshness should be verified

Geography

Gifford Marine Park, within Australia's Commonwealth marine park network