Digital Earth Australia Waterbodies Version 3

Full description

Up to date information about the extent and location of surface water provides all Australians with a common understanding of this valuable and increasingly scarce resource.

Digital Earth Australia (DEA) Waterbodies shows the wet surface area of waterbodies as estimated from satellites. It does not show depth, volume, purpose of the waterbody, nor the source of the water.

DEA Waterbodies uses Geoscience Australia’s archive of over 30 years of Landsat satellite imagery to identify where over 300,000 waterbodies are in the Australian landscape and tells us the wet surface area within those waterbodies.

It supports users to understand and manage water across Australia. For example, users can gain insights into the severity and spatial distribution of drought or identify potential water sources for aerial firefighting.

The tool uses a water classification for every available Landsat satellite image and maps the locations of waterbodies across Australia. It provides a timeseries of wet surface area for waterbodies that are present more than 10% of the time and are larger than 2700m2 (3 Landsat pixels).

The tool indicates changes in the wet surface area of waterbodies. This can be used to identify when waterbodies are increasing or decreasing in wet surface area.

More information on using this dataset can be accessed on the DEA Knowledge Hub at https://docs.dea.ga.gov.au/data/product/dea-waterbodies-landsat/?tab=overview. Refer to the research paper Krause et al. 2021 for additional details: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13081437

The update from version 2 to version 3.0 of the DEA Waterbodies product and service was created through a collaboration between Geoscience Australia, the National Aerial Firefighting Centre, Natural Hazards Research Australia, and FrontierSI to make the product more useful in hazard applications.

Geoscience Australia, the National Aerial Firefighting Centre, Natural Hazards Research Australia, and FrontierSI advise that the information published by this service comprises general statements based on scientific research. The reader is advised and needs to be aware that such information may be incomplete or unable to be used in any specific situation. No reliance or actions must therefore be made on that information without seeking prior expert professional, scientific and technical advice. To the extent permitted by law, FrontierSI, Geoscience Australia, the National Aerial Firefighting Centre and Natural Hazards Research Australia (including its employees and consultants) are excluded from all liability to any person for any consequences, including but not limited to all losses, damages, costs, expenses and any other compensation, arising directly or indirectly from using this publication (in part or in whole) and any information or material contained in it.

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Maintenance and Update Frequency: asNeeded

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Purpose
Information about the extent and location of surface water