Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Features (Reef boundaries, QLD Mainland, Islands, Cays, Rocks and Dry Reefs) (GBRMPA)

Brief description

This dataset contains coastal features within and adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area. This dataset consists of two shapefiles GBR_FEATURES.shp and GBR_DRY_REEF.shp. The GBR_FEATURES shapefile contains the following features: * Queensland mainland coastline, * Major and other coral reef structures (as defined by the reef shoal edge), * Islands and rocks (exposed and submerged), * Major coral cay features. The GBR_DRY_REEFS contains major coral reef structures (as defined by the reef shoal edge) that are tidal, drying or emergent reef areas. The reef features extend north above the GBRWHA to just within the Torres Strait region. The features have not been statistically tested with precision survey techniques. Positional accuracy varies considerably and dataset should NOT be used for navigation purposes, however, for general use the coverage can be regarded as having a nominal scale of 1:250,000. This dataset corresponds to the zoning within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park effective 1st July 2004. It is derived from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zoning Plan 2003. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is a multiple-use area. Zoning helps to manage and protect the values of the Marine Park that users enjoy. Zoning Plans define what activities occur in which locations both to protect the marine environment and to separate potentially conflicting activities. Revised zoning of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was introduced in July 2004 as part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority's Representative Areas Programme. Between 1999 and 2004, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority undertook a systematic planning and consultative program to develop new zoning for the Marine Park. The primary aim of the program was to better protect the range of biodiversity in the Great Barrier Reef, by increasing the extent of no-take areas (or highly protected areas, locally known as ‘Green Zones’), ensuring they included 'representative' examples of all different habitat types - hence the name, the Representative Areas Program or RAP. Whilst increasing the protection of biodiversity, a further aim was to maximise the benefits and minimise the negative impacts of the rezoning on the existing users of the Marine Park. Both these aims were achieved by a comprehensive program of scientific input, community involvement and innovation [1]. In each zones there are a range of activities that are allowed, disallowed or require a permit. The following outlines a summary of activities that are disallowed in each zone. Please refer to [2] for a more detailed and authoritative description of all restrictions within each zone: * General Use Zone: General use, some activities require a permit. * Habitat Protection Zone: No trawling, some activities require permits. * Conservation Park Zone: No trawling, limited crabbing and line fishing. * Buffer Zone: No aquaculture, bait netting, crabbing, harvesting fishing, collecting, spearfishing, line fishing, netting and trawling. Trolling for pelagic fish is allowed. * Scientific Research Zone: Research areas primarily around scientific research facilities. Same as Buffer zone but with no trolling. * Marine National Park Zone (Green): 'no-take' area. The following are allowed: boating, diving, photography and limited impact research. Some other activities are allowed with permits. * Preservation Zone (Pink): 'no go' area. No activities are allowed except research activities with a permit. Official maps derived from this dataset can be downloaded from the GBRMPA Zoning Maps [3] page. This dataset can now be downloaded directly from GBRMPA's Geoportal. Note: This metadata record was created for the eAtlas and is not authoritative. Please contact GBRMPA for more information. GBR_FEATURES.shp: Polygon Vector Shape file (5376 features) GBR_ID: A number that is made up of a two-digit number representing the latitude band the feature is in (LAT_ID) and a three or four-digit number representing the sequential number of a particular feature complex (GROUP_ID), e.g. an island with an adjacent reef/cay/rock etc should have the same GROUP_ID (19-051) SORT_GBR_I: A whole number for sorting (19051) GBR_NAME: Great Barrier Reef MP Name (Five Trees Cay (No 1)) QLD_NAME: Queensland Name (Five Trees Cay (No 1)) FEATURE_C: a three-digit number representing the type of feature, e,g mainland, island, cay etc (102) FEAT_NAME: Name of feature (Cay, Island, Mainland, Reef, Rock, Sand) SUB_NO: a two-digit number that is linked to the SUB_ID of a feature. The SUB_ID is a letter that identifies multiple features of the same type in a group, e.g. multiple reefs surrounding an island are labelled a, b, c, d etc - these will be numbered 101, 102, 103, 104 etc. If the SUB_ID is "s", it refers to a single feature and will be given the number 100 (101) LABEL_ID: GBR_ID plus SUB_ID if not an S (S is a singular feature and does not need a sub-id label) (19-051a) X_COORD: Centroid of feature (in Geographics GDA94 decimal degrees) (150.221849) Y_COORD: Centroid of feature (in Geographics GDA94 decimal degrees) (-22.227123) CODE: GBR_ID plus SUB_NO plus FEATURE_CODE with hyphens (19-051-101-102) UNIQUE_ID: GBR_ID plus SUB_NO plus FEATURE_CODE with no hyphens. This is to be used as the unique ID for the oracle database (19051102101) GBR_DRY_REEFS.shp: This shows areas of the reef that dry or the tops of the reefs. Polygon Vector Shape file (2318 features)

Notes

To represent Great Barrier Reef Marine Park features within and adjacent to the GBRWHA

Lineage

Extract from Hopley et al., 2007 regarding the GBRMPA reef GIS : "The base data came from digitizing map sheets produced by the Australian Survey and Land Information Group (AUSLIG) based on the original LANDSAT images. The advent of LANDSAT-7 in 1999 gave the opportunity to map the ref at a 30 m resolution. Considerable effort was put into obtaining good-quality ground control, obtained using helicopter surveys (Lewis et al., 2003). Image interpretation was untertaken through a cobination of supervised and unsupervised classification techniques. Resolution and turbidity issues precluded the remapping of most nearshore and fringing reefs, the data for which are currently being updated from other sources. At the present time the datasets consist of GIS accessible files showing indicative reef outline (which Lewis (2001) suggests equates to approximately 10.5 m below MSL), dry reef (but probably more appropriately called reef flat) and the coast and islands, including high islands and many cays (assumed to represent MHWS)." Hopley, D., Smithers, S. and Parnell, K. 2007. The geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef, Development, Diversity, and Change. Cambridge University Press, 140 Lewis, A. 2001. Great Barrier Reef Depth and Elevation Model: GBRDEM. Townsville, CRC Reef Research Centre. Lewis, A., Lowe, D. and Jurgen, O. 2003. Remapping the Great Barrier Reef. Position 4, 46-49.