Australia’s marine estate is multi-jurisdictional, geographically extensive, and supports many competing uses with complex decentralised management frameworks, making streamlined administration and planning highly challenging. Pre-competitive geoscience information, including bathymetry compilations, seabed geomorphology and sediment stability maps and other spatial information is essential to support planning and investment decisions. Integrated, multidisciplinary datasets enhance our understanding of Australia's seabed, and have wide-ranging applications across multiple ocean sectors. Bathymetric and geoscience maps are used to design surveys, identify areas suitable for offshore infrastructure, and provide important regional context for environmental impact assessments, thereby reducing investment risk and supporting evidence-based decisions consistent with government policies and regulations.
Geoscience Australia’s integration and digital delivery of marine data provides valuable insights into the distribution and evolution of seabed features and their associated characteristics, processes and regulatory designations. Our Australian Marine Spatial Information System (AMSIS) provides a web-based interactive mapping and decision support system that improves access to integrated government and non-government spatial layers, tools, visualizations, and data for the management of Australia’s marine jurisdiction. This robust scientific information ecosystem drives the translation of data into information and knowledge to support decision-makers.