This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub Research Plan 2023 project "Guiding the sustainable development of offshore renewables and other emerging marine industries in Australia". For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. -------------------- Australia is entering a phase of rapid offshore renewable energy development, particularly offshore wind, with priority areas identified across the western, southern and eastern coasts. Regulatory assessment under the EPBC Act and Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act requires accessible environmental, cultural and monitoring information to support socially and ecologically sustainable development. This project established inventories of existing environmental and cultural data, best-practice monitoring standards, and impact-related literature for continental shelf waters associated with Australia’s six priority offshore wind regions: Hunter and Illawarra, Gippsland, Southern Ocean, Bass Strait, and the Indian Ocean off Bunbury. The process was guided by an Offshore Renewable Energy Program Steering Committee with representatives from DCCEEW, NOPSEMA and Marine and Coastal Hub partners. The work ran in parallel with a related NESP Marine and Coastal Hub project (https://www.nespmarinecoastal.edu.au/project/3-21) focused on the confirmed area of declaration for ORE off the east Gippsland coast, Victoria. Together, both projects were guided by an Offshore Renewable Energy Program Steering Committee comprising representatives from DCCEEW, NOPSEMA and Marine and Coastal Hub partners. Focus areas of the data inventory were: • Seabed geomorphology, bathymetry, sedimentology, and habitat characterisation; • Oceanographic features and coastal processes; • Priority threatened, migratory, and marine species and habitats; • Potential impacts during installation, operation, and decommissioning; • Indigenous communities and cultural values affected by ORE development areas; • Monitoring needs and associated best practices. Project outputs included four database inventories with more than 500 publications across 16 impact types, seabed and oceanographic information, and tabulated summaries and mapped extents of priority species relevant to ORE assessment. The compiled data inventories identified major data and management gaps, including limited high-resolution bathymetry, geomorphology and biological survey data; inconsistent data acquisition standards; limited FAIR access to threatened species data; and the need for coordinated research investment and early Traditional Owner engagement. Outputs from the project will support environmental assessment, mitigation and monitoring of offshore wind impacts, standardisation of data collection methodologies, cumulative impact assessment, and regulatory decision-making under the EPBC and OEI Acts. Outputs • Inventory of existing information and associated sources for the following thematic areas: seabed geomorphology and habitat, oceanography, species and habitats, affected indigenous communities, ongoing monitoring needs and associated best practices, potential impacts of installation and operation [data inventories] • Final project report [written]

This project undertook a review of existing environmental literature and data on threatened and migratory marine species data to inform the sustainable development of Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) projects (primarily wind) in Australia. A list of priority species and species of secondary importance were identified by the project together with stakeholders from DCCEEW and NOPSEMA. This list comprised of 100 species of birds, cetaceans, bony fish, sharks, pinnipeds and marine turtles. A literature search was undertaken for each species using a systematic approach detailed in the 'Lineage' section of this record. Each publication was assessed for whether the study location was within or near the ORE area and an attribute populated to indicate the ORE area(s) overlapped. Studies with spatial coverages not overlapping the ORE area were still retained if they were located nearby the ORE area, for species with poorly-defined distributions (e.g. short-finned pilot whales), or for migratory coastal birds that may use the ORE area as migration corridors. The potential impacts of ORE infrastructure and operation for each species was noted from a controlled list of potential impacts. The main topic of the study, and the methodologies used in the study, were also recorded, along with the general spatial location(s) of the study and the publication citation. The resultant inventory serves as a comprehensive record of existing publications associated with priority species potentially at risk from ORE developments, along with the nature of the potential impact. The inventory is intended to provide research information and methods for use in the planning, development, operation, and decommissioning phases of the offshore wind sector. The dataset attached to this record provides a spatial index of of all publications identified through this inventory process. Observation data each of the species were additionally compiled from BirdLife Australia, Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), Victorian Biodiversity Atlas Victorian Biodiversity Atlas (VBA), and GlobalArchive (a repository of stereo-video annotations data). These data are freely available to download from each of the source repositories.