An online mapping platform is being developed for Tasmanian waters to improve accessibility of information supporting marine planning.
Tasmania’s marine environment is increasingly subject to varying and sometimes competing uses. As the marine environment is becoming more congested, there is a growing need to track marine activities and how they overlap with each other, which is why holistic marine spatial planning is becoming increasingly important.
To build on the data and tools currently available, Tasmania’s Marine Atlas is being developed through a three-year FRDC-supported research project (2019-111). Now in its final year of development, the Atlas will be a publicly available online mapping platform that acts as a central point to access and overlay data on Tasmania’s marine environment.
This will include information on human activities such as fishing, transport and infrastructure, along with environmental information such as habitat diversity and species occurrences.
The Atlas is intended to be accessible to anyone, but it will be specifically relevant for government, fishing and aquaculture sectors, researchers as well as the public.
Improved accessibility
While there are many useful and valuable datasets available for fishery and aquaculture stakeholders, they are often not easily accessible. Tasmania’s Marine Atlas aims to address these issues by collating and integrating this data into a format that makes it easier to find and understand the available information.
The data is sourced from many publicly available datasets such as state government, federal agencies and research outputs, and includes links back to the original source. The research team led by Principal Investigator and Marine Spatial Analyst Dr Myriam Lacharité from the University of Tasmania, is undertaking a technically challenging process.
The Atlas aims to bring datasets together, presenting it in a user-friendly portal that can be easily used.
Myriam says the Atlas will also contain features that help with ocean literacy, demonstrating how human activities and the natural environment interact.
"For example, there is a feature showing the impact of the Long-Spined Sea Urchin [(Centrostephanus rodgersii)] range extension here in Tasmania on both fisheries and the natural environment," she says.
Along with making data on the Tasmanian marine environment more easily available to the public, the Atlas aims to be a valuable resource for marine spatial planning.
“Marine spatial data allows you to see when and where there are opportunities and potential conflicts. The Atlas can help you see where activities are overlapping with one another, and where you may need a different management approach” Myriam explains.
“It could also provide more opportunities for synergy, by identifying potential efficiencies between nearby activities.”
“Ideally, we want it to be used in tandem with decision-support tools, so it can be used by managers, the community, researchers and the fishing and aquaculture sectors, to better understand how we can divide up the spatial footprint.”
Decision-making tools
The project also includes analysis and comparison of available decision-support tools, ranging from simple tools that just scan what is in a specific area to more advanced management tools.
This will help determine how the Atlas can integrate with these tools, depending on the sophistication of the mapping and end uses required.
Myriam says that catering to different potential users can be a difficult balancing act as online mapping tools have the potential to be quite advanced. There is a balance required between providing features that require expertise to use, while keeping the platform accessible to a broader audience.
To ensure this balance is translating well to users, the Atlas has been reviewed by focus groups with changes made to improve its accessibility and aesthetics.
There are also protocols being put in place to ensure the Atlas is maintained after the project ends. Myriam says that the Atlas has been constructed to be as flexible as possible so that it can also cater to future yet-unknown needs. “It is not meant to be a static tool but rather evolve with evolving needs and relevant sources of data.”
FRDC Research Portfolio Manager Toby Piddocke says this project aims to consolidate and build on information that is already available, rather than investing in a new collection of marine spatial data.
“The marine environment is becoming increasingly crowded, so we need ways to identify what is going on out there, to plan for and balance the needs of diverse user groups,” Toby says. “The temptation is to go out and collect new data but, in this particular area, there is already a lot out there and it is more efficient to leverage what we already have and make it more accessible for a wide range of users.”
Tasmania’s Marine Atlas is expected to be publicly available by the end of this year via a dedicated website.
Here is a preview video of the Atlas in action:
Related project
2019-111: Tasmania’s Marine Atlas
This relates to R&D Plan Outcomes 1 & 2
