Marine Habitats of Western Australia, Standardized to SMHC Classification

Western Australia's marine habitats are mapped as polygons, primarily within existing and proposed conservation reserve areas. The data results from habitat mapping by various organizations, including DPAW, using diverse methodologies over many years. Habitat classifications were standardized to the DPaW broad-scale Shallow-water Marine Habitat Classification scheme (Bancroft, 2003).

Use Cases

• Delineating marine conservation reserve boundaries based on standardized habitat polygons.
• Analyzing broad-scale ecological community distribution based on the SMHC classification scheme.
• Assessing habitat coverage and connectivity for selected areas in Western Australia.

Strengths

• Habitat polygons are classified to both broad-scale Community and detailed Functional Group levels where data exist.
• Classifications are standardized to a documented scheme (Bancroft, 2003), promoting consistency.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to data_gov_au, focusing on selected conservation areas.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, aggregating work from various organizations including DPAW.

Collection Method

Habitat mapping using a range of methodologies, with classifications standardized post-hoc to the SMHC scheme.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-13 11:16:26.335201; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Selected areas in Western Australia, mostly in existing and proposed marine conservation reserves.