Cooperative Research Centre - coastal zone, estuary and waterway management

Project description

The Coastal CRC provides knowledge and decision-making tools to help facilitate more effective management and ecosystem health of Australia's coastal zone, estuaries and waterways. The project's goal is to help bridge the gaps between science, the community and policy making organisations.

The Coastal CRC team at Geoscience Australia is providing quality geoscientific input to the three Coastal CRC interlinked, multidisciplinary projects described below. For additional information on the outputs of GA's Coastal CRC Project visit the OzEstuaries website: http://www.ozestuaries.org

Project Outputs

1. The Fitzroy River Estuary and Keppel Bay.

   This project is providing an improved systems understanding and decision-support products that will be used in the management of the Fitzroy Estuary, its catchment and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Specific research questions being answered by the GA/CSIRO team are:

   1. Quantitatively, how are nutrients and sediments transported through the Fitzroy system to the Great Barrier Reef?
   2. What is the role of the system - including the estuary, associated wetlands and Keppel Bay - as a region for accumulating, transforming and redirecting contaminants from the catchment?
   3. How has present management practice altered fine sediment transport, biogeochemical cycling and primary production within the Fitzroy system?
   4. What is the deposition history of sediments on the floodplain through to Keppel Bay and how does this relate to flood events and changes in catchment land uses?
   
   
   

   Image of a Geoprobe percussion corer (Qld DNRM) operating on the Fitzroy River floodplain downstream from Rockhampton.

2. Science to Enable the Adaptive Management for Sustainability (SEAS)

   1. OzEstuaries (www.ozestuaries.org)

      The OzEstuaries project involves adding new coastal geoscience datasets and information to the OzEstuaries online database. We are also building additional online database query functions and linkages to external datasets to enable decision makers, researchers and the public to better access, integrate and synthesise these data.

   2. Comparative Estuary Geomorphology

      This includes a national study of Australia's near-pristine estuaries. Outputs include GIS maps of habitat areas in near-pristine estuaries; a literature review of scientific reports and papers on near-pristine estuaries; and a report on methods of mapping estuary habitats and the utility of a geomorphological indicator of estuary habitat modification. These outputs will better-enable the protective management of Australia's best-preserved estuaries.

      

      Landsat image of the East Alligator River, a near-pristine tide-dominated estuary in Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory.
      View a higher resolution image [PDF_206KB]
      

      Landsat scene overlayed with the mapped geomorphic habitat areas.
      View a higher resolution image [PDF_216KB]

      ARC shape files of geomorphic habitats in most of the estuaries in Australia are available for download at: http://www.ozestuaries.org

3. Coastal Water Habitat Mapping - Coastal Geomorphology and Classification Subproject.

   At selected sites (Keppel Bay, Qld; Sydney Harbour, NSW; Esperance Bay, WA; Cockburn Sound, WA) we are mapping coastal seafloor morphology, geology and sediments to provide important insights into the extent, character and diversity of these benthic environments. This work includes the use of a high-resolution multibeam acoustic seabed mapping system (Reson 8125), sidescan sonar, acoustic sub-bottom profilers, underwater video systems and a range of sediment sampling and data analysis techniques.

   

   Image of submersible vibracoring system being deployed from the side of FV Jumbo II, Esperance Bay, Western Australia.

More information on the Coastal CRC's Coastal Water Habitat Mapping Project is available on the Coastal CRC's website.