NESP MB C1: Marine Environmental Pressures in Australia, 1991-2015

A project from the NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub provides data and analyses on anthropogenic pressures affecting Australia's marine environment. The research aims to inform decision-making under the EPBC Act and management of Commonwealth Marine Reserves. Outputs include summaries of pressure trends from 1991 to 2015 for offshore and inshore areas.

Use Cases

• Assessing the acceptability of proposed activities under the EPBC Act based on spatial pressure mapping.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of mitigation measures for marine conservation values using pressure trend analyses.
• Informing management strategies for Commonwealth Marine Reserves based on pressure profiles and value interactions.
• Supporting State of the Environment reporting with updated pressure summaries for inshore and offshore areas.
• Developing a risk-based approach to cumulative impact assessment using relative and cumulative impact mapping.

Strengths

• Project outputs include pressure trend analyses covering a 24-year period from 1991 to 2015.
• Research is designed to inform multiple government initiatives, including four Marine Bioregional Plans and Commonwealth Marine Reserve management.
• The project re-examines and aims to improve upon prior pressure assessments from the marine bioregional planning program and the 2011 SOE Report.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network via data_gov_au

Collection Method

Research project output involving re-examination of prior pressure analyses and development of improved assessment methodologies.

Time Range

1991 to 2015

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 01:35:31.597398; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Commonwealth marine environment of Australia, including offshore and inshore areas, Key Ecological Features (KEFs), and Commonwealth Marine Reserves (CMRs).