Developments in mapping of seabed habitats for Marine Protected Area planning and monitoring

To date a total area of approximately 275 km
²
of continental shelf waters within the Solitary Islands Marine Park and adjacent waters has been swath mapped. This data, combined with maps of shallow reefs digitised from aerial photos, underwater video surveys and Geographical Information System (GIS) analysis is used to create a number of spatial products such as digital elevation models (with analysis of slope and rugosity), vector based seabed habitat maps and spatially-linked data on macro-benthic floral and faunal assemblages.