Joseph Bonaparte Gulf Bathymetry and Morphological Surfaces at 30 m Resolution

Geoscience Australia contributes to managing 58 Commonwealth marine parks covering 40% of Australia's EEZ by providing new marine data. This release contains a 30-meter bathymetry grid for the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf area, processed using a semi-hierarchical seafloor classification scheme that categorizes slopes into Plains, Slopes, and Escarpments. The data supports the development of 'eco-narrative' documents for marine park management.

Use Cases

• Classifying seafloor slope into morphological categories (Plain, Slope, Escarpment) based on the Dove et al (2016) two-part mapping approach.
• Supporting marine park management plan development by providing interpreted environmental data for 'eco-narrative' documents.
• Analyzing seabed geomorphology within the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf region based on high-resolution bathymetric data.
• Mapping habitat types for biodiversity assessment based on derived morphological surfaces.

Strengths

• Data is derived from a high-resolution 30-meter bathymetry model for Northern Australia.
• Classification scheme is based on a published, peer-reviewed morphological approach (Dove et al, 2016).
• Data supports the management of a network of 58 marine parks covering 3.3 million square kilometres.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Freshness should be verified; last metadata update is dated 2026-05-05.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, via the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Collation and interpretation of existing environmental data, and collection of new marine data.

Geography

Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, within Commonwealth marine parks in Northern Australia.