Coverage database of Australian bathymetry surveys, compilations, and depth models
This dataset contains polygon extents of all known bathymetry surveys and bathymetry compilations in Australia's marine jurisdiction, including the Australian Antarctic Territory. Each polygon includes metadata identifying attributes, contact details, information on the public availability of data, and (in the case of published data) gridded resolution.
The following data sources have been used as inputs:
• AusSeabed 'Bathymetry Acquisitions Coverage (Dynamic)' ( https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/148613)
• AusSeabed 'Bathymetry Compilations Coverage (Dynamic)' ( https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/148614)
• computed footprints (suffixed by _L0_Coverage) of bathymetry data published through AusSeabed Warehouse Geoserver ( https://warehouse.ausseabed.gov.au/geoserver)
• computed footprints (suffixed by _BBOX) of bathymetry data published through CSIRO Geoserver ( https://www.cmar.csiro.au/geoserver)
• manually computed footprints of bathymetry data published through other online repositories: WA Bathymetry Portal ( https://dot-wa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=d58dd77d85654783b5fc8c775953c69b), the Australian Ocean Data Network ( https://portal.aodn.org.au) and the NSW SEED Portal ( https://www.seed.nsw.gov.au)
This dataset was generated to enable reporting for Seamap Australia's 'State of Knowledge' functionality ( https://seamapaustralia.org/map/), as existing coverage information does not contain metadata on gridding resolution. The dataset is live and will be continually updated as new surveys are conducted and new coverage information becomes available. Gridding resolution will be appended to existing survey extents when historical surveys are published.
This dataset is updated regularly (date of last update: 14/10/2023) and will be maintained in perpetuity until such time that a nationally authoritative source takes over this functionality.
Note that a degree of spatial simplification has been conducted to reduce filesize and polygon complexity. All efforts have been made to maintain true survey extent (area-preserving simplification has been used), but polygons may not be representative of the true survey extents, particularly in the case of reported extents from unpublished surveys which cannot be verified.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2023-08-24
- Date (Last Update)
- 2023-10-14
Principal investigator
- Status
- On going
Point of contact
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent

Temporal extent
- Time period
- 1989-01-01
Vertical element
- Minimum value
- 0
- Maximum value
- 7000
- Identifier
- EPSG::5715
- Name
- MSL depth
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
- Keywords (Theme)
-
- bathymetry
- seafloor features
- mapping
- seabed mapping
- NASA/GCMD Keywords, Version 8.5
Resource constraints
- Classification
- Unclassified
Resource constraints
- Linkage
-
http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png
License Graphic
- Title
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Website
-
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License Text
- Other constraints
- Cite data as: Flukes, E. (2023). Coverage database of Australian bathymetry surveys, compilations, and depth models. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania (UTAS). Data accessed from https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/bfaac2bc-0c11-4991-b0fa-2a1dc7fd6e61 on [access date].
- Other constraints
- This dataset is the intellectual property of the University of Tasmania through the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, but is a collaborative effort between AusSeabed (Geoscience Australia), the Australian Hydrographic Office, various universities and state and federal organisations around Australia.
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distribution format
-
- Web Map Service, ESRI Shapefile
- OnLine resource
-
seamap:Aus_bathymetry_holdings
National coverage of bathymetry surveys Web Mapping Service layer (for use in desktop GIS or similar)
Resource lineage
- Statement
- Data extents were gathered from the sources mentioned in this record's abstract. Publicly accessible bathymetry data was acquired in grid formats including geoTIFFs, File Geodatabases, or BAG files, and a Raster to Vector transformation was applied. Using ESRI geometry tools, the extents were compiled, refined, simplified, and validated. An effective area retaining algorithm (Visvalingam-Whyatt) was used in simplification to strike a balance between maintaining accuracy in coverage calculations, with efficient file size and mapping performance. While the metadata attributes varied across sources, they were consolidated and standardized into a consistent attribute set, with additional details on data availability and grid resolution appended. For survey data released in multi-resolution formats—where deeper data grids at a coarser resolution overlap with shallower data grids at finer resolutions—the coarser footprints were trimmed using the finer resolution footprints. This ensures that the resulting survey footprint has minimal overlaps and represents the highest feasible published data resolution. ---DATA DICTIONARY--- -Column Name- -Description- ID Unique identifier TITLE_ASB Title of dataset in AusSeabed (if published) NAME Name of dataset, from provider AMP_NETWORK Australian Marine Park network(s) intersected by coverage [comma separated list] AMP_PARK Australian Marine Park parks(s) intersected by coverage [comma separated list] RES_RANGE Gridded resolution of the entire published survey (typically a range; metres) RES_ACTUAL Gridded resololution of this particular section of published survey (integer; meters) METADATA_URL URL for metadata associated with bathymetry product or survey (if published) START_DATE Start date (for whole survey) END_DATE End date (for whole survey) SURVEYID Identifier assigned to survey by data provider DATA_DL Flag to indicate whether data is available for download in a processed gridded form. Format is 'no' or 'yes - <source of data download; values include ASB for AusSeabed, WA bathymetry portal etc>' DTYPE Broad data type, values 'survey', 'DEM' (digital elevation model), 'compilation' DTYPE_SORT Column used for sorting data by type for mapping purposes - can be discarded AVAIL_SORT Column used for sorting data by availability for mapping purposes - can be discarded
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
- urn:uuid/bfaac2bc-0c11-4991-b0fa-2a1dc7fd6e61
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Point of contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
- Metadata linkage
-
https://metadata.imas.utas.edu.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/bfaac2bc-0c11-4991-b0fa-2a1dc7fd6e61
Point of truth URL of this metadata record
- Date info (Creation)
- 2023-08-24T11:44:25
- Date info (Revision)
- 2023-11-21T17:46:32
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO 19115-3:2018
Overviews


Spatial extent

Provided by
