NERP TE Project 4.1 - Tracking coastal turbidity over time and demonstrating the effects o

A 12-year dataset from 2002 onward analyzes coastal turbidity in the Great Barrier Reef. The project, managed by the Australian Ocean Data Network, processes MODIS/Aqua remote sensing data to calculate water clarity and analyzes it against environmental factors like tides, waves, wind, rain, and river flow. It aims to determine quantitative relationships between river discharges and seasonal/annual variations in inshore water clarity.

Use Cases

• Modeling the impact of river discharge events on coastal water clarity based on the described analysis of river flow and turbidity data.
• Calibrating water quality risk analysis models using the provided data for the Receiving Waters Model mentioned in the description.
• Analyzing long-term trends in euphotic depth (water clarity) for the Great Barrier Reef based on MODIS/Aqua remote sensing data processed since July 2002.
• Strengthening scientific basis for reef management plans (Reef Rescue, Reef Plan) by establishing links between water quality targets and observed turbidity patterns.

Strengths

• Analyzes a 12-year data series for long-term trend assessment.
• Integrates multiple data sources including remote sensing (MODIS/Aqua), tidal models, and daily river flow data from BOM and DERM.
• Focuses on a specific, ecologically critical region: the inshore Great Barrier Reef adjacent to Natural Resource Management regions.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Primary file formats listed are PNG and HTML, suggesting the dataset may consist of processed outputs or reports rather than raw tabular data.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Processed from MODIS/Aqua remote sensing data and analyzed against predicted/observed tides, waves, wind, rain, and river flow data.

Time Range

2002 onward, with a project focus on 2012-2014.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-13 19:14:07.968242; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Inshore Great Barrier Reef, adjacent to Natural Resource Management regions.