Seascapes of the Australia Margin and Adjacent Sea Floor: Methodology and Results

This report describes the iterative methods used to create the seascapes, including a detailed appendix documenting the different datasets used in the different planning zones. Creating the seascapes is necessarily an iterative process whereby the available datasets are combined in different combinations, or added as they become available, using an unsupervised 'crisp' ISOClass classification in ERMapper. In each classification only biophysical properties that have consistent and definable relationships with the benthic biota and are known in sufficient detail across Australia's entire marine region are used to create the seascapes. An initial validation of the classification technique has been undertaken on a subset of the data for the shelf surrounding Tasmania using an alternative unsupervised 'fuzzy' classification. Results of this validation indicate that the unsupervised classification methodology provides consistent and reliable classes for defining the seascapes.