Contents
1. Introduction
The AusSeabed Marine Data Portal (the Portal) is managed by Geoscience Australia and provides access to publicly available seabed-related datasets, such as bathymetry, backscatter, side scan sonar data and other marine-related or derived products (e.g. geomorphology), as well as a suite of analytical assessment tools to maximise the value of the data. The Portal allows users to explore and interrogate seafloor mapping products across Australia’s marine jurisdiction prior to downloading. For more information about the program, please visit the AusSeabed website. The Portal is under active development, which means that datasets and functionality may change over time.
A.1 Purpose
This website will provide users with information on commonly used functions in the AusSeabed Marine Data Portal and is structured in three sections:
Visualise datasets held by Geoscience Australia and the broader AusSeabed community using 2D or 3D views
Download datasets as a whole or for a specific area of interest in multiple data formats using Clip, Zip and Ship tool) or a database search tool. Currently, the database search tool is specific to data associated with the search for missing flight MH370
Analyse various datasets characteristics and relationships using analytical tools (e.g. seabed substrate characteristics from the MARine Sediments (MARS) database)
The AusSeabed Marine Data Portal is a subset, or persona, of the overall Geoscience Australia Portal (https://portal.ga.gov.au ), which has access to all layers, analytical tools and functionalities delivered by Geoscience Australia. Personas are a way of reconfiguring the Portal to make it easier for different stakeholders to use.
A.2 Audience
This Portal is designed for a range of audiences, from the expert marine science community (mapping marine parks, conducting biological and ecological research surveys, habitat mapping), to the industry sector (e.g. resource exploration), the non-experts relying on seabed mapping data for decision-making (e.g. marine estate manager and policy-maker) and the general public wishing to explore the seabed within the Australian Marine Jurisdiction.
All datasets within the Portal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). Additionally:
The data sets are not suitable for use in marine navigation or in the creation of navigational products or any other purpose involving safety at sea.
Much of this data is published 'as supplied' and may include artefacts or unprocessed portions that may not necessarily reflect the seafloor environment.
A.3 Browser Requirements
We recommend using the AusSeabed Marine Data Portal with an up-to-date modern web browse (e.g. Safari, Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Firefox). Microsoft Explorer is not currently supported.
To ensure that you are working with the latest version of the Portal, it is recommended that you clear your cache before you start your session. On Chrome, you can either press Ctrl+F5 to clear your cache when you open your browser, or click on https://portal.ga.gov.au/persona/marine/_recache
To ensure that all the functionality is present on the Portal, the browser screen must be at a minimum of 925x925 pixels.
A.4 Overview of the AusSeabed Marine Data Portal
The Portal contains many tools that allow a user to add data onto the map and search for publications (1), interrogate, download and analyse datasets (2), and explore and compare different datasets (3).
Figure 1. The Portal tools and operations are summarised above, where; 1) About, Layers, Location Search, Reports; 2) Tools, Clip, Story Map, Share URL, Help, Person; and 3) Zoom toolbar, 3D tool, Splitter Tool and Reset Map Position. For more information about the tools and operations, please see Table 1.
Table 1. Tools and Operations on the AusSeabed Marine Data Portal (summarized in Figure 2)
Tool | Function |
 | The ‘About’ tool allows users to show and hide information about the portal. |
 | The ‘Layers’ tool allows users to show and hide the layers selection window. |
 | The ‘Location Search’ tool allows users to search for particular locations and zoom to them in the main map. |
 | The ‘Data and Publications’ tool allows users to search and download reports, books or videos held by Geoscience Australia. |
 | The ‘Share URL’ tool allows users to share a URL of the current map extent and selected active layers. |
 | The ‘Autosave application state’ is triggered on browser/tab close or refresh, and automatically saves the layers, and zoom levels that were last selected. |
 | The ‘Help’ button provides information about how to use the Portal. |
 | The ‘Persona’ button allows users to select from multiple personas, which contain tools and data layers relevant to that discipline. |
 | The ‘Tools’ button provides a selection of tools to interrogate and query data:
|
 | The ‘Clip’ tool allows users to download a specified extent of data in multiple formats and projections. |
 | The ‘Map Narrator’ tool allows users to create a narrative using the map layers present in the Portal, add other multimedia content, and share this with other users. |
 | The ‘3D’ tool enables 3D view of the map and selected layers. Please note that only a small subsection of bathymetry point cloud data are available to be used in this tool at this point in time. |
 | The ‘Splitter’ tool enables side-by-side comparison of two datasets. |
 | The ‘Reset Map Position’ button resets the position of the map to the default setting. |
 | The ‘Centre map on current location’ button requires access to your current location, and centres the map based on your location. |
Figure 2. Detailed location for Tools and functions of the AusSeabed Marine Portal in Table 1.
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