Marine Zone Management and the EPBC ACT: How Environmental Marine Geological Information Provides Certainty for Petroleum Exploration  

Authors / CoAuthors

Harris, P.T. | Heap, A.D. | Post, A. | Whiteway, T. | Potter, A.

Abstract

In order to protect the diversity of marine life in Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the federal parliament has passed the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999. The Act is being implemented through the design of a national representative system of marine protected areas (MPAs) that will place under protection a representative portion of Australia's EEZ by 2012. A total of 13 MPAs have already been nominated for the southeast region in 2006. Limited biological data in Australia's EEZ has resulted in biophysical information compiled by Geoscience Australia being used as a proxy for seabed biodiversity in support of marine conservation planning. Information we use to characterise the seabed includes bathymetry, geomorphology, acoustic properties, sediment properties, slope and sediment mobilisation due to waves and tides. To better characterise habitats on the Australian continental shelf, Geoscience Australia is creating 'seascape' maps (similar to geological facies maps) that integrate these multiple layers of spatial data, and are useful for the prediction of the distribution of biodiversity in Australia's EEZ. This information provides 100% spatial coverage based on objective, multivariate statistical methods and offers certainty for managers and stakeholders including the oil and gas industry, who are involved with designing Australia's national MPA system. Certainty for industries operating in the EEZ is enhanced by a reproducible, science-based approach for identifying conservation priorities and the classification of seafloor types within multiple use areas.

Product Type

nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

65042

Contact for the resource

Keywords

• External PublicationArticle

( Theme )

• geomorphology

( Theme )

• bathymetry

( Theme )

• environmental

( Theme )

• habitat

( Theme )

• marine

• AU

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Earth Sciences

• Published_External

Publication Date

2007-01-01T00:00:00

Creation Date

Security Constraints

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

Classification - unclassified

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

Access - license

Use - license

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Purpose

Maintenance Information

unknown

Topic Category

geoscientificInformation

Series Information

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Unknown

Parent Information

Extents

[-47.0, -9.0, 109.0, 155.0]

Reference System

Spatial Resolution

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Associations

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