Marine Data Register: Metadata for Australian Seabed Mapping

The Marine Data Register (MDR) is a metadata database for Australian seabed mapping data, including bathymetry and geophysical information. It is managed by the National Seabed Mapping Section at Geoscience Australia and powers the public AusSeabed Marine Data Portal. The system documents the full lifecycle of seabed datasets from acquisition to decommissioning.

Use Cases

• Discover seabed mapping datasets based on metadata descriptions of acquisition and processing.
• Manage the lifecycle of marine data based on the documented stages from registration to decommissioning.
• Facilitate centralized data-discovery for external users based on the metadata submission interface.
• Query and filter seabed datasets based on metadata fields available through the Query Builder.

Strengths

• Managed by a national geological authority (Geoscience Australia's National Seabed Mapping Section).
• Documents the full data lifecycle (acquisition, registration, processing, publication, decommissioning).
• Powers a public-facing data portal (AusSeabed Marine Data Portal) for discovery.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data freshness should be verified; last metadata update was 2026-06-22 23:59:33.655732.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Metadata submitted by external users and managed internally for GA-held data.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-22 23:59:33.655732; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australian seabed