Recent datasets

This dataset consists of three Excel files containing multiple worksheets of data from a monitoring period starting in July 2023 and ending in April 2024, along with a set of three technical reports containing the monitoring methodology and findings generated from these datasets. The datasets capture water quality and hydrological data from a constructed wetland in Tully, within the Wet Tropics region of Queensland, Australia.

The study focused on the impacts of catchment development on estuaries. Our previous NESP NAER study showed that for three rivers in the Gulf, nutrient addition to intertidal mudflat cores stimulated production and by inference, a reduction in nutrients,e.g. increased extraction of water, would negatively impact primary production. The current study expanded this further to examine additional estuaries in northern Australia, i.e.

This dataset summarises subtidal benthic surveys in Yanyuwa Sea Country into 3 GIS shapefiles. (1) A point (site) shapefile describes seagrass presence/absence at 849 subtidal sites surveyed by vessel. (2) The meadow shapefile describes attributes of 46 subtidal seagrass meadows. (3) The interpolation shapefile describes variation in subtidal seagrass biomass across the seagrass meadows.

This dataset summarises benthic habitat and fish surveys in West Cape York, including the West Cape York Marine Park (Commonwealth), southern Dugong Sanctuary, Angkamuthi and Kaurareg Sea Country into 2 GIS shapefiles. (1) A point (site) shapefile showing point location of 407 habitat survey sites. (2) A point (site) shapefile showing point location of BRUV (baited remote underwater video) deployments to survey fish at 42 sites. The full report is: Carter A, Groom R, Smith T, Shepherd L, van de Wetering C and Willan R (2023).

This dataset contains the spatial analysis workflow, data derived from the spatial analysis, and R code to identify the blue carbon restoration opportunity in three case study regions in Australia: 1) Fitzroy Basin, QLD; 2) Peel-Harvey and northern part of South West Catchments, WA; and 3) Ord River, WA.

This dataset corresponds to land area polygons of Australian coastline and surrounding islands. It was generated from 10 m Sentinel 2 imagery from 2022 - 2024 using the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) to distinguish land from water. It was estimated from composite imagery made up from images where the tide is above the mean sea level. The coastline approximately corresponds to the mean high water level. This dataset was created as part of the NESP MaC 3.17 northern Australian Reef mapping project.

This dataset summarises intertidal benthic surveys of Dungeness Reef, Torres Strait in February 2021 into 3 GIS shapefiles. (1) The site shapefile describes (a) seagrass presence/absence and (b) species composition at 128 sites. (2) The meadow shapefile describes seagrass communities for the reef-top meadow. (3) The interpolation shapefile describes variation in seagrass biomass across sites in the meadow.

This dataset consists of one data file (spreadsheet) of outcomes from a national scale survey of practitioners and researchers working in marine and coastal ecosystem restoration. For privacy reasons the data are aggregated and presented as summary data. Long form responses have been checked to ensure that respondents are not identifiable. The survey was open for response November 8th 2021 – November 29th 2021 and had 129 valid responses.

This dataset contains cloud free, low tide composite satellite images for the tropical Australia region based on 10 m resolution Sentinel 2 imagery from 2018 – 2023. This image collection was created as part of the NESP MaC 3.17 project and is intended to allow mapping of the reef features in tropical Australia. This collection contains composite imagery for 200 Sentinel 2 tiles around the tropical Australian coast. This dataset uses two styles: 1. a true colour contrast and colour enhancement style (TrueColour) using the bands B2 (blue), B3 (green), and B4 (red) 2.

This code repository and dataset details a method for determining benthic reflectance from a combination of satellite imagery and bathymetry. Its key benefit is that it can map benthic reflectance up to 50 - 60 m in depth in clear waters, when using Sentinel 2 B2 channel combined with matching bathymetry data. Benthic reflectance is a measure of how much light the seafloor reflects and is useful for distinguishing areas that are sand (high reflectance) or vegetation such as seagrass, algae and coral (low reflectance).

This dataset compiles georeferenced media - including videos (480), articles (20), and datasets (6) - specifically curated to facilitate the understanding of reef habitats across northern Australia. It was designed as a research tool for virtual fieldwork with a particular focus on identifying sources of information that allow an understanding of both inshore and offshore reef environments. This dataset provides a record of the literature and media that was reviewed as part of mapping the reef boundaries from remote sensing as part of project NESP MaC 3.17.

This dataset contains maps of alluvial and hillslope gullies across blocks of lidar covering portions of the Burdekin Catchment. This project is an expansion of the detailed gully mapping and assessment undertaken previously as part of NESP TWQ Project 5.10 (Daley et al., 2021), using newly available lidar as well as some older data not previously used. The gully polygons were generated using methods developed in the NESP TWQ 5.10 project for the extraction of gullies from lidar. Lidar is detailed topographic data collected from aircraft using an airborne laser scanning system.

This dataset is a vector shapefile mapping the deep submerged aquatic vegetation on the bottom of the coral atoll lagoons in the Coral Sea within the Australian EEZ. This mapped vegetation predominantly corresponds to erect macroalgae, erect calcifying algae and filamentous algae (Tol, et al., 2023), with an average algae benthic cover of approximately 30 - 40%. This corresponds to only vegetation occurring on the soft sediment of the lagoons. This dataset was mapped from contrast enhanced Sentinel 2 composite imagery (Lawrey and Hammerton, 2022).

This dataset consists of collections of satellite image composites (Sentinel 2 and Landsat 8) that are created from manually curated image dates for a range of projects. These images are typically prepared for subsequent analysis or testing of analysis algorithms as part of other projects. This dataset acts as a repository of reproducible test sets of images processed from Google Earth Engine using a standardised workflow.

This dataset is true colour cloud-free composite satellite imagery optimised for mapping shallow marine habitats in northern Australia, based on 10-meter resolution Sentinel 2 data collected from 2015 to 2024. It contains composite imagery for 333 Sentinel 2 tiles of northern Australia and the Great Barrier Reef. This dataset offers improved visual clarity of shallow water features as compared to existing satellite imagery, allowing deeper marine features to be observed.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub study - Developing Traditional Owner community-led dugong monitoring in the Kimberley region. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. Dugong are a keystone species with considerable ecological and cultural value across northern Australia. In the Kimberley region of Western Australia, dugongs have been identified as one of the top priorities to monitor in an effort to ensure the population is maintained and traditionally harvested in a sustainable manner.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub study - Protecting valuable shoreline mangroves of northern Australia. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. The mass death (~80 km2) and dieback of shoreline mangroves around the Gulf of Carpentaria (GOC) and across northern Australia in 1982 and 2015 was a wake-up call to the vulnerability and immense importance of marine coastal ecosystems like mangroves.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub project 'Towards assessing the values of reefs in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria 2024 - 2025'. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. The Gulf of Carpentaria Marine Park was only recently declared in 2013. The zoning plan for this marine park, which permits trawling within a specific trawling zone is due for renewal by 2028.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub project Indigenous Ranger-led monitoring of threatened sawfish in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. This project will work with Indigenous rangers and Traditional Owners in the Victoria River, Northern Territory, to improve understanding of largetooth sawfish populations.

This record provides an overview of the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub project 'Supporting recovery and management of migratory shorebirds in Australia'. For specific data outputs from this project, please see child records associated with this metadata. Coastal Australia is home to 37 regularly occurring migratory shorebird species, with many protected areas including Ramsar sites designated on the basis of shorebird populations. Many migratory shorebirds are declining rapidly, and hence the focus of conservation efforts at multiple levels of government in Australia and overseas.