South-west Corner Marine Park Bathymetry Survey, 5m Resolution

330 km^2 of multibeam bathymetry data for the South-west Corner Marine Park, collected by Geoscience Australia in March 2020 and January-February 2021. The dataset is a 5-meter resolution geotiff produced from a Kongsberg EM2040C sonar system to build baseline information for benthic habitats. The survey was a collaborative project with multiple Australian universities, funded by the National Environmental Science Program Marine Biodiversity Hub.

Use Cases

• Modeling seafloor terrain and slope for habitat suitability based on bathymetry data.
• Establishing a baseline for monitoring changes in the marine park as part of a 10-year management plan.
• Integrating bathymetry layers with separate benthic imagery datasets for comprehensive habitat mapping.

Strengths

• Covers a 330 km^2 survey area offshore from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin.
• High-resolution 5-meter bathymetry grid derived from a Kongsberg EM2040C multibeam sonar system.
• Data collection is tied to a specific collaborative research project and a published post-survey report.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for some analytical methods.
• The description notes the dataset is not to be used for navigational purposes, indicating it is for scientific/research use.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, with collaboration from the University of Western Australia, University of Tasmania, and the Australian Centre for Field Robotics.

Collection Method

Multibeam bathymetry data collected via charter vessel Santosha and processed using CARIS HIPS and SIPS software.

Time Range

Survey periods: 9 – 12 March 2020 and 27 January – 16 February 2021.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-16 10:02:23.918072; freshness should be verified.

Geography

South-west Corner Marine Park, offshore from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia.