Vanuatu Coastal Water Quality CTD Profiles from 2016 to 2018

2016-2018 CTD depth profiles collected as part of a baseline assessment of marine water quality around Vanuatu in the South Pacific. The dataset supports the Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme and includes measurements from coastal waters around Efate and Tanna islands, focusing on the urbanized area of Port Vila. It was published by Cefas, UK, in 2020.

Use Cases

• Establishing baseline water quality conditions based on salinity and temperature profiles.
• Analyzing coastal eutrophication or pollution trends based on chlorophyll fluorescence and dissolved oxygen measurements.
• Modeling light availability for marine habitats based on turbidity and light attenuation data.
• Assessing the impact of urbanization on near-shore marine environments based on the focus on Port Vila.

Strengths

• Data collected over a three-year period from 2016 to 2018, providing temporal depth.
• Profiles include six key water quality parameters: salinity, temperature, turbidity, light attenuation, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll.
• Geographic focus includes two islands, Efate and Tanna, with repeated sampling around the main urban area of Port Vila.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Cefas, UK, as part of the Commonwealth Marine Economies Programme.

Collection Method

CTD depth profiles collected in coastal waters.

Time Range

2016-2018

Freshness

Data collection concluded in 2018; the dataset was published in 2020.

Geography

Coastal waters around the islands of Efate and Tanna, Vanuatu, South Pacific, with a focus on Port Vila.