Douglas Shire Coastal Water Quality and Reef Status Monitoring: 2004-2005

The Douglas Shire Water Quality Improvement Project report summarizes water quality and reef coral cover data collected by AIMS and Sea Research. AIMS has conducted twice-yearly water quality surveys since 1989 and reef surveys since 1985, providing a long-term baseline. The project augmented this with 16 months of sampling at seven coastal reef sites, including two wet seasons.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in coastal water quality based on twice-yearly surveys conducted since 1989.
• Monitor changes in coral cover and crown-of-thorns starfish abundance based on long-term reef surveys.
• Assess the impact of wet seasons on pollutant runoff based on data collected over two wet seasons.
• Compare nearshore reef conditions from consultancy surveys with broader regional monitoring data.

Strengths

• Includes data from the longest and most comprehensive water quality monitoring program in Great Barrier Reef coastal waters at the time.
• Combines long-term data series from AIMS (since 1985/1989) with targeted 16-month project data at seven sites.
• Data collection was funded and conducted by authoritative bodies like AIMS, Sea Research, and GBRMPA.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is presented in an HTML report format, which may complicate direct analysis.

Provenance

Source

Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), Sea Research (environmental consultancy), Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA).

Collection Method

Field surveys, including twice-yearly water quality sampling and reef monitoring.

Time Range

Historical data from 1985/1989, with a focused project period from 2004-2005.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 22:08:41.391753; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Douglas Shire region and Cairns, Great Barrier Reef lagoon, Australia.