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Marine Benthic Substrates
of Australia
in Virtual Globe
This site serves to introduce and explain the Google Earth data display site "http://instaar.colorado.edu/~jenkinsc/dbseabed/KML/AUS/AUS_CEL.KMZ". Note Feb 2012: GE has changed the way this data displays, so the display is disabled while this is fixed. Google Earth (GE) and KML/KMZ*1 data constructs are a useful way of publishing the comprehensive, integrated data coverages produced under dbSEABED. This web page describes a cell-based display of geographically binned for the Australian Maritime Area. The display is primarily for browsing data, but we expect that experimentation will occur in this new medium. It is computed off the database from dbSEABED integrated data. Please see documentation for the similar USGS usSEABED for the details of the data integration (LINK). Briefly stated, dbSEABED is a system for the accumulation, safeguarding, and integration of seafloor data: geological, engineering, biologic, survey, chemical, acoustic. It is directed to research and education. Most of the data here are from direct physical samplings of the seafloor. However, some are geophysically defined, such as coral reef outlines, pinnacles, and rock areas of high acoustic backscatter. We include this geophysical data to achieve a representative rendering of seabed character, not just of the sampleable sediment areas. There is a bibliography of the publications on dbSEABED, including the Australian implementation (LINK). This KML project is the result of sustained data entry, database, and software development at the Universities of Colorado and Sydney, with technical assistance from the Defence Technology Organization, Royal Australian Navy, CSIRO (Australia), US Geological Survey, Universities of Texas, Minnesota, Columbia and New Orleans, and NOAA (USA), and Forschungsanstalt der Bundeswehr für Wasserschall und Geophysik (FWG) and Institut fur Ostseeforschung Warnemunde (IOW) (Germany). The data in dbSEABED are from donated and collaborative datasets, and publically available publications and reports. The original data are not presented, mainly because of the near impossibility of dealing with copyright for all stakeholders in datasets. Users should contact INSTAAR (Univ Colorado) if more extensive GIS or RDB datasets are needed. Users should also check with these organisations that the data is fit-for-purpose for their application. The data presented here (Version 1.1) may be altered at any time, without notice. To prevent metamorphosis of the data by uncontrolled transmission/copying we ask that users always acquire the data direct from source: this web site.
Operations Double click on the link "http://instaar.colorado.edu/~jenkinsc/dbseabed/KML/AUS/AUS_CEL.KMZ". Once the project is opened you can save it locally through Google earth as a KMZ compressed bundle of files for further local use. Zooming in As the project opens (Google Earth version 4) the display zooms to the region of coloured placemarks. Each placemark represents a 0.1 degree (latitude, longitude, WGS84) cell that contains some point data. Many cells contain just a few points, some contain hundreds. dbSEABED holds data for estuarine, river and some lake sites, so some of the bin placemarks appear over land - especially where bins touch inshore areas or a shoreline. Drilling down to data By clicking on a cell placemark, a top-level summary of the data there appears as a GE balloon. That summary describes the number of samples there, the range of Folk Codes (see LINK) to characterize the sediment textures, and the sampler types (e.g., 'Grab'). It also provides a link "Go to Summary for this Cell". In the bubble, the arrangement of 'e/p/c' shows whether extracted, parsed or calculated data is present for each output attributes. Futher details may be found in usSEABED documentation (e.g., LINK). A web page summarizing the cell data appears with location, water depth, and mean values/ranges/units/data types for the main parameters.  Click to enlarge Beneath the summary table are links another web page summarising the provenance and pedigree of the data. [In future a further link will be made to FGDC metadata.] Documentation Warranty This data product was prepared by for the purposes of education and research. None of the partner organisations, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in the product, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by any of the partner organisations. Any views and opinions of authors expressed herein do no necessarily state or reflect those of the partner organisations. Although all the data made available here have been used by the partner organisations, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by those as to the accuracy of the data and related materials and/or the functioning of the software. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the partner organisations in the use of these data, software, or related materials. Acknowledgements We thank many organisations for providing funding, which has allowed a huge improvement and development of the global and Australian substrates database. We thank particularly the many people and organisations who donated datasets and therby made a mapping possible. |
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Notes: *1 KML is Keyhole Markup Language, a variant of XML. KMZ is a zipped form of KML. |
