Northern Australian Estuary Habitats from Landsat Satellite Imagery, 1990s-2020s

Seven northern Australian estuaries were examined using the Digital Earth Australia Landsat archive to map intertidal areas and mangrove extent. The analysis utilized a three-decade-long Landsat time series and geometric median composites to overcome cloud interference. This work was part of the NESP A12 Northern Seascapes Scoping Project, with data last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Mapping mangrove expansion or dieback based on the three-decade Landsat time series.
• Analyzing intertidal habitat extent and morphology using the Intertidal Extent Model from DEA.
• Detecting coastal landform changes, such as rapid island growth, using tide-tagged satellite imagery.
• Developing habitat monitoring tools by integrating Landsat with new data streams like Sentinel-2.

Strengths

• Analysis covers a three-decade-long Landsat time series.
• Focuses on seven specific estuaries: Darwin Harbour, Keep, Daly, Roper, Macarthur, Flinders, and Gilbert River.
• Employs advanced methods like geometric median composites and tide-tagging to reduce cloud and tidal interference.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is provided as a PDF report; underlying raw data or processed layers are not directly specified.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Satellite remote sensing analysis using the Digital Earth Australia (DEA) Landsat archive.

Time Range

Likely spans approximately three decades, based on the Landsat archive mentioned.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-25 18:04:29.471138; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Seven estuaries in northern Australia: Darwin Harbour, Keep, Daly, Roper, Macarthur, Flinders, and Gilbert River.