The Historical Bushfire Boundaries service represents the aggregation of jurisdictional supplied burnt areas polygons stemming from the early 1900's through to 2022 (excluding the Northern Territory). The burnt area data represents curated jurisdictional owned polygons of both bushfires and prescribed (planned) burns. To ensure the dataset adhered to the nationally approved and agreed data dictionary for fire history Geoscience Australia had to modify some of the attributes presented. The information provided within this service is reflective only of data supplied by participating authoritative agencies and may or may not represent all fire history within a state.

To date, a range of methods have been developed and applied to the processing and analysis of underwater video and imagery, in part driven by different requirements. For example, in Australia, the marine science community who are partnered by the National Environmental Research Program (NERP) and funded by the Marine Biodiversity Hub, has developed a national CATAMI (Collaborative and Automated Tools for Analysis of Marine Imagery and video) scheme. Technological advances in recent years have improved the usability and output quality of underwater video and still images used to identify and monitor underwater habitats and structures and as a result, these techniques are more frequently applied to marine studies. So far, a comprehensive review of underwater video and still imagery processing/analysis methods has not been completed, although the number of studies utilising underwater stills and video has increased dramatically. Difficulties in diver limitation and stringent regulations applied to the collection of diver-based imagery and video data from underwater benthic habitats. Therefore, remote sensing methods such as underwater video and still imagery are becoming increasingly pivotal for ground-truthing benthic biological and physical habitats in shallow and deep marine and freshwater habitats and are also providing a permanent archive for future analyses. This review focuses on post-processing observational methods used for underwater video and still image habitat classification and quantification. We summarise the main applications, advantages and disadvantages of video and still imagery scoring methods, and illustrate recent advances in this topic.

Marine visual imaging has become a major assessment tool in the science, policy and public understanding of our seas and oceans. The technology to acquire and process this imagery has significantly evolved in recent years through the development of new camera platforms, camera types, lighting systems and analytical software. These advances have led to new challenges in imaging, including storage and management of `big data, manipulation of digital photos, and the extraction of biological and ecological data. The need to address these challenges, within and beyond the scientific community, is set to substantially increase in the near future, as imaging is increasingly used in the designation and evaluation of marine conservation areas, and for the assessment of environmental baselines and impact monitoring for maritime industry. We review the state of the theory, techniques and technologies associated with each of the steps of marine imaging for observation and research, and to provide an outlook on the future from this active scientific and engineering community that develops and uses it.

Understanding surface water resources is important for communities, agriculture and the environment, especially in water-limited environments. In 2014 Geoscience Australia released the Water Observations from Space (WOfS) product, providing information on the presence of surface water across the Australian continent from 27 years of Landsat satellite imagery. WOfS was created to provide insight into the extent of flooding anywhere in Australia, but broader applications are emerging in the areas of wetland behaviour, river system mapping, groundwater surface water interaction, and water body perenniality. Understanding the characteristics of inundation for every waterbody across a county, over a period of time, gives a greater knowledge of perenniality and helps support decision making for a wide range of users including aquatic ecological community and water resource management. WOfS provides a consistent tool to locate and characterise water bodies at the continental scale.

Monitoring is a regulatory requirement for all carbon dioxide capture and geological storage (CCS) projects to verify containment of injected carbon dioxide (CO2) within a licensed geological storage complex. Carbon markets require CO2 storage to be verified. The public wants assurances CCS projects will not cause any harm to themselves, the environment or other natural resources. In the unlikely event that CO2 leaks from a storage complex, and into groundwater, to the surface, atmosphere or ocean, then monitoring methods will be required to locate, assess and quantify the leak, and to inform the community about the risks and impacts on health, safety and the environment. This paper considers strategies to improve the efficiency of monitoring the large surface area overlying onshore storage complexes. We provide a synthesis of findings from monitoring for CO2 leakage at geological storage sites both natural and engineered, and from monitoring controlled releases of CO2 at four shallow release facilities - ZERT (USA), Ginninderra (Australia), Ressacada (Brazil) and CO2 field lab (Norway).

This dataset provides the spatially continuous data of seabed gravel (sediment fraction >2000 µm), mud (sediment fraction < 63 µm) and sand content (sediment fraction 63-2000 µm) expressed as a weight percentage ranging from 0 to 100%, presented in 0.0025 decimal degree (dd) resolution raster grids format and ascii text file. The dataset covers the Browse region in the Australian continental EEZ. This dataset supersedes previous predictions of sediment gravel, mud and sand content for the basin with demonstrated improvements in accuracy. Accuracy of predictions varies based on density of underlying data and level of seabed complexity. Artefacts occur in this dataset as a result of insufficient samples in relevant regions. This dataset is intended for use at the basin scale. The dataset may not be appropriate for use at smaller scales in areas where sample density is insufficient to detect local variation in sediment properties. To obtain the most accurate interpretation of sediment distribution in these areas, it is recommended that additional samples be collected and predictions updated.

The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (the 'Madrid Protocol') includes provisions to protect areas of biological, scientific, historic, aesthetic or wilderness value. While these provisions have been mostly utilised to protect sites of biological or cultural significance, sites of geological or geomorphological significance may also be considered. To date, only two sites within East Antarctica (Marine Plain, Vestfold Hills and Mount Harding, Grove Mountains), have been declared as Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPA) in recognition of their unique geological or geomorphological significance. Recently, however, Stornes, a peninsula in the Larsemann Hills (Prydz Bay) has been identified as a candidate due to the abundance and diversity of extremely rare granulite-facies borosilicate and phosphate minerals found there. The need for proactive intervention, protection and management of sites of intrinsic geoscientific value is becoming increasingly important. This recent example highlights the growing awareness of the intrinsic scientific value of Antarctic geological features within the AAT, including rare mineral or fossil localities. This awareness is identified within the current Australian Antarctic Science Strategic Plan and emphasises that geosciences can actively contribute to and influence the development of management plans and actively support Australia's commitments to Annex V of the Madrid Protocol. Wider recognition of the geological values achieved by invoking the provisions for area management, including creating the need to obtain the permission of a national authority to enter the area, should also mitigate casual souveniring and accidental or deliberate damage caused by ill-advised construction or other human activity.

Geoscience Australia undertook a marine survey of the Vlaming Sub-basin in March and April 2012 to provide seabed and shallow geological information to support an assessment of the CO2 storage potential of this sedimentary basin. The survey was undertaken under the Australian Government's National CO2 Infrastructure Plan (NCIP) to help identify sites suitable for the long term storage of CO2 within reasonable distances of major sources of CO2 emissions. The Vlaming Sub-basin is located offshore from Perth, Western Australia, and was previously identified by the Carbon Storage Taskforce (2009) as potentially highly suitable for CO2 storage. The principal aim of the Vlaming Sub-basin marine survey (GA survey number GA334) was to look for evidence of any past or current gas or fluid seepage at the seabed, and to determine whether these features are related to structures (e.g. faults) in the Vlaming Sub-basin that may extend up to the seabed. The survey also mapped seabed habitats and biota in the areas of interest to provide information on communities and biophysical features that may be associated with seepage. This research addresses key questions on the potential for containment of CO2 in the Early Cretaceous Gage Sandstone (the basin's proposed CO2 storage unit) and the regional integrity of the South Perth Shale (the seal unit that overlies the Gage Sandstone). This dataset comprises sidescan grids.

This dataset provides the spatially continuous data of seabed gravel (sediment fraction >2000 µm), mud (sediment fraction < 63 µm) and sand content (sediment fraction 63-2000 µm) expressed as a weight percentage ranging from 0 to 100%, presented in 0.0025 decimal degree (dd) resolution raster grids format and ascii text file. The dataset covers the Petrel sub-basin in the Australian continental EEZ. This dataset supersedes previous predictions of sediment gravel, mud and sand content for the basin with demonstrated improvements in accuracy. Accuracy of predictions varies based on density of underlying data and level of seabed complexity. Artefacts occur in this dataset as a result of insufficient samples in relevant regions. This dataset is intended for use at the basin scale. The dataset may not be appropriate for use at smaller scales in areas where sample density is insufficient to detect local variation in sediment properties. To obtain the most accurate interpretation of sediment distribution in these areas, it is recommended that additional samples be collected and interpolations updated.

Geoscience Australia undertook a marine survey of the Vlaming Sub-basin in March and April 2012 to provide seabed and shallow geological information to support an assessment of the CO2 storage potential of this sedimentary basin. The survey was undertaken under the Australian Government's National CO2 Infrastructure Plan (NCIP) to help identify sites suitable for the long term storage of CO2 within reasonable distances of major sources of CO2 emissions. The Vlaming Sub-basin is located offshore from Perth, Western Australia, and was previously identified by the Carbon Storage Taskforce (2009) as potentially highly suitable for CO2 storage. The principal aim of the Vlaming Sub-basin marine survey (GA survey number GA334) was to look for evidence of any past or current gas or fluid seepage at the seabed, and to determine whether these features are related to structures (e.g. faults) in the Vlaming Sub-basin that may extend up to the seabed. The survey also mapped seabed habitats and biota in the areas of interest to provide information on communities and biophysical features that may be associated with seepage. This research addresses key questions on the potential for containment of CO2 in the Early Cretaceous Gage Sandstone (the basin's proposed CO2 storage unit) and the regional integrity of the South Perth Shale (the seal unit that overlies the Gage Sandstone). This dataset comprises high resolution backscatter grids.