What did you do the first time you used Google Earth? Look at your house from space?
Dr Eric Lawrey had different ideas about how to use this suddenly ubiquitous satellite imagery. Eric was peering at the northern Australian coastline, looking at blue-green smudges that may be coral reefs – and wondering why he couldn’t find them on any maps.
He set out on a voyage of discovery from his desktop, and with a small team unveiled over 1000 uncharted reefs from Houtman Abrolhos in Western Australia through to western Cape York in Queensland.
How did we miss so many reefs? Lots were in remote and turbid (murky) waters. In truth, many reefs probably were known about – by locals, Traditional Owners, and marine industries with a general sense that these were bad areas to sail through.
It’s the detail in the maps that’s the real breakthrough here, including the types of reefs – with important implications for the marine life which depends on them.
You can see the huge improvements in the images in this video.
Read the full story on our website to find out how these hidden reefs were revealed, and the challenges along the way. https://www.aims.gov.au/information-centre/news-and-stories/desktop-explorers-unveil-more-1000-uncharted-coral-reefs-northern-australia
Dr Lawrey led the reef boundary mapping within AIMS’s Data and Digital Engineering team, with contributions from Marc Hammerton, Kathryn Markey and colleagues at The University of Queensland, and spatial scientist Rachel Bycroft.
This project is jointly funded by AIMS and the Australian Government under the NESP Marine and Coastal Hub.
