News
Seabed mapping on a global scale: New international agreement
Published:30 October 2024
Geoscience Australia is contributing to global action on seabed mapping by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030; the first Australian Government organisation to do so.
Dr James Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of Geoscience Australia, joined Jamie McMichael-Phillips, the Director of Seabed 2030 at Geoscience Australia’s Symonston headquarters for the signing.
“We are thrilled to formalise our partnership with Seabed 2030 and cement our place in the global effort to map the world’s seabed by 2030,” Dr Johnson said.
“Seabed 2030 is an important part of the global effort to map the world’s seabed by 2030 and Geoscience Australia is a proud contributor to this project.”
“Welcoming Geoscience Australia as a partner marks a significant step forward in the global pursuit of a fully mapped ocean floor,” commented McMichael-Phillips. “This partnership underscores the power of collaboration across national and regional boundaries, drawing on Australia’s breadth of seabed data and expertise.
“Together, we are moving closer to achieving a comprehensive map of the ocean and look forward to working closely with Geoscience Australia to advance our ambitious vision.”
CEO of Geoscience Australia, Dr James Johnson, and Director of Seabed 2030, Jamie McMichael-Phillips, sign the Memorandum of Understanding.
Seabed 2030 is a collaborative project between The Nippon Foundation and the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO), which seeks to inspire the complete mapping of the world’s ocean by the end of the decade.
It aims to build the necessary technical, scientific, and management framework to compile all available seabed mapping information into a seamless digital map of the world’s ocean floor by 2030. Partnerships like the agreement being signed with Geoscience Australia are key to achieving the Seabed 2030 mission of delivering a complete seabed map for the benefit of people and the planet. So far, it has collated data that covers one-quarter of the world’s seabed.
Seabed 2030 is a flagship program of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030 and supports the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 14: ‘to conserve and sustainably use the ocean, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.’
Head of Oceans, Reefs, Coasts and the Antarctic Branch, Dr Jodie Smith, explained that Geoscience Australia has committed to providing data into the Seabed 2030 project on behalf of the Australian seabed mapping community. This will support the global effort to compile seabed mapping data into a seamless digital map of the world’s ocean floor.
“Geoscience Australia has a national leadership role in coordinating, collating, quality assuring and publishing Australia’s seabed mapping data,” Dr Smith said.
This includes leading the AusSeabed initiative, which is a national seabed mapping collaboration that aims to improve the coverage, quality, accessibility and usability of seabed mapping products in the Australian region.
“We publish seabed mapping data through the AusSeabed data portal, and this data supports decision-making across a range of marine applications, including offshore renewable energy, hazard modelling and marine park management.”
As an island nation, Australia has one of the largest marine jurisdictions in the world and is responsible for around 4% of the world’s oceans.
“To manage this resource sustainably, seabed mapping data is necessary because it allows us to better understand the environment, which improves decision-making and supports the sustainable growth of Australia’s ocean economy,” Dr Smith explained.
“We have made great progress, but there is a lot more work still to be done.”
Dr Smith added that new opportunities will come from the recently-announced Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity initiative, which will fill large gaps in existing maps of offshore areas of Australia and assess suitable sites for renewable energy and geological storage.
Geoscience Australia will reprocess, review and publish valuable archives of legacy offshore data, and collate it with new offshore data, to better understand the geology and geography of the seabed.
“Geoscience Australia will make this data publicly available and will feed this data into the Seabed 2030 project.”
Dr Smith added that our oceans offer a wealth of resources that require protection and careful management to ensure sustainability.
“Australia is committed to the goal of 100 per cent of our oceans being sustainably managed by 2025, and seabed mapping data is essential to support this commitment,” she said.
“We are looking forward to working with Seabed 2030 into the future to support sustainable use of our oceans.”
Seabed mapping data allows us to understand ocean circulation and climate models, resource management, tsunami forecasting, fishing resources, sediment transportation, environmental change, underwater geohazards, cable and pipeline routing, and management of fragile marine ecosystems.