Making marine environmental data more assessment-ready

This project addressed this gap by making priority marine environmental datasets more assessment-ready. Working with government agencies, marine researchers and data infrastructure providers, the project developed a framework to transform priority marine datasets into standardised, cloud-optimised products that can be routinely updated and delivered through national infrastructure.

These products are designed to support State of the Environment reporting, Environmental Economic Accounts, environmental approvals, marine park management, threatened and migratory species assessments, and Australia’s national environmental data supply chain.

Approach and findings

The project began with a national prioritisation workshop involving more than 40 participants from 16 organisations, including representatives from government agencies, research institutions and marine management organisations. Together, they identified six high-priority datasets spanning habitats, species and human pressures.

The selected datasets included a national seagrass aggregation, seabird observations, kelp surveys, reef benthic surveys, dugong aerial surveys and vessel tracking data. These datasets provide important information on the condition of Australia’s marine environment and the pressures acting upon it.

For each dataset, the project developed automated workflows to extract, transform and load information into consistent, assessment-ready products. Data from multiple sources were harmonised, quality-checked and converted into cloud-optimised formats that support efficient analysis and reporting

The products were enriched with standard spatial, regional and taxonomic information. This included H3 spatial indices for multi-resolution mapping and analysis, Australian Marine Region tags for national reporting, and recognised taxonomic identifiers such as WoRMS and CAAB. These features make it easier for users to filter, aggregate and compare information across regions and time periods.

The project also developed training materials, including videos and code repositories in Python and R, to help government, research and consultancy users work with the new data products.

Importantly, the workflows and products were integrated into the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) and Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN) infrastructure. This allows products to be automatically updated as new data becomes available, ensuring their long-term value.

Outcomes

The project delivered a suite of assessment-ready marine environmental data products that support environmental reporting, assessment and management across Australia. By providing consistent, well-documented information on marine habitats, species and human pressures, these products improve access to the evidence needed for environmental decision-making.

A key achievement was demonstrating a practical and scalable approach for transforming research data into assessment-ready information within existing national infrastructure. By embedding workflows within IMOS and AODN and providing supporting training resources, the project has established a sustainable pathway for maintaining and expanding assessment-ready marine data products.

The framework developed through this project can be applied to additional marine datasets in the future, helping ensure that environmental assessments, planning and policy decisions are informed by the best available marine science.

The datasets on AODN can be found here.

To start working with the datasets, see the NESP 5.9 Analysis Notebooks on GitHub and explanatory videos on the IMOS YouTube channel.

IMOS is enabled by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).

Project location