Multibeam Echo Sounder User Needs Survey: 103 Respondents Across 69 Entities

A summary of responses from 103 people across 69 Australian and international government, private sector, and academic entities regarding user needs for multibeam echosounder (MBES) data. The data was gathered via an online questionnaire and two workshops conducted by FrontierSI, Geoscience Australia, and Deakin University. The report identifies 30 specific MBES survey purposes across 10 general application areas.

Use Cases

• Designing seabed data sharing platforms based on reported user willingness to share data and obstacles like cost recovery and confidentiality.
• Informing MBES survey planning tools based on identified end-user needs and challenges.
• Prioritizing marine research and conservation areas based on the 30 specific MBES survey purposes identified across 10 application areas.
• Improving data discoverability for marine spatial planning based on challenges reported in finding previously-acquired data.

Strengths

• Responses gathered from 103 participants, providing a substantive sample size.
• Covers 69 distinct Australian and international entities from government, private sector, and academia.
• Identifies 30 specific MBES survey purposes across 10 application areas, offering detailed use-case categorization.

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 or sectoral bias inherent to the survey's respondent pool.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network (via data.gov.au), based on a study by FrontierSI, Geoscience Australia, and Deakin University.

Collection Method

Data gathered via an online questionnaire supported by two workshops.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 20:24:30.605293; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Primarily Australia, with some international participation.