Remote sensing for planning and managing the great barrier reef of Australia

Abstract The CSIRO Division of Water and Land Resources has cooperated with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) and the Australian Survey Office (ASO) to establish comprehensive remote sensing based reef mapping procedures. The research established the potential benefits of remotely sensed data to planning and managing the GBR Marine Park as well as methods of analysis specific to the applied problems of reef top mapping. The ASO has completed a full scale mapping program (involving some 24 Landsat scenes) based on this research and development in the GBR Region. The products consist of rectified Landsat imagery at 1:250 000 and 1:100 000 scales and standard thematic products which indicate approximate bathymetry, reef geomorphological and cover zones and reef environmental parameters such as exposure to weather.