Australia’s seabed underpins marine conservation, maritime safety, offshore infrastructure, defence, and the blue economy. Yet only 38.5% of Australia’s vast 13.86 million km² marine estate is sufficiently mapped, making seabed mapping a challenge that no single organisation can address alone.
AusSeabed is a Geoscience Australia led national, collaborative initiative, that coordinates seabed mapping across government, research institutions, and industry to ensure limited resources deliver maximum public value. Central to AusSeabed is a simple premise: You can have impact at every stage of the data lifecycle; from sharing priorities through the Survey Coordination Tool, to directing fieldwork toward areas of highest value, contributing to common standards, sharing data, and ultimately using consistent, community‑driven datasets. Working collectively at each step increases the reach, relevance, and impact of individual efforts.
By publicly sharing both priorities and the data that has already been collected, AusSeabed reduces duplication of effort, reduces data silos, enables effective community collaboration, and maximises return on investment.
This presentation will demonstrate how AusSeabed translates individual inputs into national impact. It will share real-world examples of how coordinated planning improves survey efficiency, maximises reuse of seabed data, and strengthens outcomes across science, policy, and operations - transforming isolated surveys into national capability.