Predicted Seabed Sediment Content in the Timor Sea, 10m Resolution

A 2018 dataset provides spatially continuous predictions of seabed gravel, mud, and sand content as weight percentages for eight areas in the Timor Sea region within the Australian continental EEZ. The data is presented in 10-meter resolution raster grids and ASCII text files. This research was supported by the National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine Biodiversity Hub and supersedes previous predictions with improved accuracy.

Use Cases

• Habitat suitability modeling based on predicted seabed sediment composition.
• Marine spatial planning and environmental impact assessments using the 10-meter resolution geospatial grids.
• Validating and improving sediment transport models with the spatially continuous mud, sand, and gravel fractions.
• Baseline studies for biodiversity monitoring in the Timor Sea region based on sediment type distribution.

Strengths

• Provides predictions at a 10-meter spatial resolution, offering detailed spatial coverage.
• Supersedes previous predictions with demonstrated improvements in accuracy, including a VEcv of 72% for sand.
• Covers eight specific areas within the Australian continental EEZ in the Timor Sea region.

Limitations

• Accuracy varies by sediment type, with a lower VEcv of 42% for gravel predictions.
• Contains artefacts, such as horizontal and vertical lines, resulting from noise in predictive variables like backscatter data.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Spatial prediction model using environmental variables, superseding previous versions.

Time Range

2018

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 13:17:05.655871; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Timor Sea region within the Australian continental Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).