Research Project
Full description Mapping the occurrence and protection of intertidal habitats is critical given their restricted distribution and importance to migratory shorebirds. Indeed, formal evaluation of the distribution and extent of intertidal habitats will provide valuable data to help assess the impact of alternative coastal development plans on shorebird populations. Conserving intertidal habitats requires an understanding of habitat distribution, as well as extent and current levels of protection by both marine and terrestrial protected areas. However, mapping intertidal habitats can be complicated using any form of field survey, airborne or satellite remote sensing, as the waterline is highly dynamic, inundating the habitat once or twice per day and exposing it to a varying extent. Recent advances in the availability of satellite image archives and multi-temporal image analysis techniques have led to the development of a method for mapping the distribution of intertidal habitats at continental scales (Murray et al. 2012). This has paved the way for a regional status assessment of tidal flat habitats in the Yellow Sea (Murray et al. 2014; Murray et al. 2015). Murray et al. (2014) demonstrated that intertidal habitats in the Yellow Sea have declined by 65% in the last five decades, and by 28% since the 1980s. However, there is little information on the extent of intertidal habitats outside the Yellow Sea. Here, we use the methodology developed by Murray et al. (2012) to create the first map of intertidal habitats for Australia, and assess the extent to which intertidal habitats are protected by marine and terrestrial protected areas. This mapping (i) enables a better understanding of the distribution and protection of intertidal habitats in Australia, (ii) forms an exemplar for the development of continent wide tidal flat maps in other parts of the world, and finally (iii) helps identify critical shorebird habitat at a national scale.