Sydney Harbour Sediment Samples for Benthic Habitat Mapping, 2003

Sediment samples collected from Sydney Harbour in August 2003 by Geoscience Australia and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation. The analysis aims to groundtruth multibeam sonar data and assess how sediment properties influence acoustic backscatter for benthic habitat classification. The work is part of the Coastal CRC's Coastal Water Habitat Mapping Project.

Use Cases

• Groundtruthing multibeam sonar survey data based on physical sediment character.
• Mapping sediment distribution for comparison with seabed geomorphology.
• Classifying benthic habitats based on the relationship between sediment properties and acoustic backscatter waveforms.

Strengths

• Samples were collected by two authoritative national scientific organizations, Geoscience Australia and DSTO.
• The data is explicitly linked to a specific survey (August 2003) and location (Sydney Harbour).
• The purpose is clearly defined for calibrating a Reson SeaBat 8125 multibeam sonar system.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The primary data format is HTML, which may not be readily machine-readable for analysis.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Sediment samples collected via survey.

Time Range

August 2003

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 01:00:07.462640; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Sydney Harbour, Australia