Shallow Benthic and Geomorphic Habitat Maps for Northern and Western Australia, 2018-2023

High-resolution 10-meter raster maps classify shallow benthic and geomorphic habitats across Northern and Western Australia from 2018 to 2023. The dataset was produced by a consortium including UQ, UNSW, and AIMS using Sentinel-2 imagery and a semi-automated Random Forest classification workflow in Google Earth Engine. It covers areas from the Houtman Abrolhos Islands to Cape York, including offshore and inshore reef systems.

Use Cases

• Regional-scale habitat assessment based on benthic classes like sand, rubble, rock, seagrass, and coral/algae.
• Marine spatial planning based on geomorphic classes including reef crest, lagoon, reef flat, and reef slope.
• Prioritization of monitoring efforts based on consistent, scalable baseline maps aligned with a national reef mapping framework.
• Ecosystem modeling based on habitat classifications tailored to five subregions (Shark Bay, West, Northwest, Gulf, Offshore).

Strengths

• High spatial resolution of 10 meters per pixel.
• Covers a large geographic area from Houtman Abrolhos Islands to Cape York.
• Includes 14 distinct geomorphic classes and multiple benthic classes.
• Classifications are regionally tailored across five subregions to account for optical and habitat differences.

Limitations

• Classifications are limited to shallow regions, just below lowest astronomical tide in turbid areas and to 10-15 meters in clear water areas.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last updated 2026-05-05 13:32:05.717922; freshness should be verified.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, produced by UQ, UNSW, AIMS as part of NESP MaC 3.17.

Collection Method

Semi-automated classification workflow in Google Earth Engine using Sentinel-2 composites and Random Forest classifiers, integrating expert visual interpretation and Object-Based Image Analysis.

Time Range

2018 – 2023

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-05 13:32:05.717922

Geography

Northern and Western Australia, from Houtman Abrolhos Islands to the northwestern side of Cape York.