NESP MaC Project Maps: Marine and Coastal Research Activity Areas in Australia

63 shapefiles represent areas of relevance for research projects under the National Environmental Science Program Marine and Coastal Hub. The maps were developed from project proposals and refined with project leaders, covering northern and southern node projects for Rounds 1, 2, and 3. The data is provided by the Australian Ocean Data Network and was last updated on 2026-07-10.

Use Cases

• Spatial search for relevant research projects based on approximate geographic extents described in the data.
• Integrating low-resolution project boundaries into metadata records for discovery platforms.
• Visualizing the general scope of marine and coastal research activities via interactive web maps.
• Analyzing the geographic distribution of research focus areas across Australian coastal and marine zones.

Strengths

• 63 distinct shapefiles representing individual research projects.
• Maps were refined through direct feedback from project leaders.
• Polygons are intentionally simplified to hundreds of vertices for ease of integration and web display.
• Extents are defined to be more accurate than simple bounding boxes for spatial searches.

Limitations

• The areas represented are intentionally low resolution and approximate.
• Row count and specific column-level documentation are unknown.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the specific research program in Australia.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Maps were drawn from research project proposals and refined through discussions with project leaders, sometimes using and simplifying high-resolution reference datasets.

Time Range

Covers research project rounds 1, 2, and 3.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-10 13:15:31.273766; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Marine and coastal areas of Australia, including areas up to approximately 50 km offshore and inshore.