NSW Estuarine Macrophytes Metadata
METADATA ELEMENT	DESCRIPTION
Title	NSW Estuarine Macrophytes
Abstract	Distribution and abundance of seagrass, mangrove and saltmarsh in NSW estuaries.
Purpose	This data was captured as part of an ongoing mapping program for monitoring changes in the distribution and extent of seagrass, mangrove and saltmarsh in NSW estuaries. Full report
Metadata contact organisation	Spatial Data Analyst - Aquatic Ecosystems New South Wales Department of Primary Industries Port Stephens Research Institute Private Bag 1 Nelson Bay NSW 2315 Australia Gregory.West@dpi.nsw.gov.au
Geographic extent	North: -28.16853 South: -37.470791 East: 153.58234 West: 149.84944
Lineage	Data Collection Method: Aerial photography interpretation. Data Set Source: The data has been prepared from Land and Property Information photo runs, Nearmap Aerial Imagery and and high-resolution imagery provided by AAM. Source Material Input Scale: better than 1:25 000. Processing Steps: Seagrass, mangrove and saltmarsh boundaries were captured using several methods, depending on age of mapping. Earliest mapping was digitised and edited in ArcGIS, habitat polygons were captured via onscreen digitizing in ArcGIS at a scale of 1:1500., more recent mapping is captured using Object Based image analysis. Mapping date and method are recorded with in the attribute table for each and every estuary. Polygons were validated in the field with DGPS, bathyscope, underwater video and side scan sonar. Boundary location and species identification were verified in the field. Families or in some case species of vegetation were mapped in the following categories:Posidonia australis Zosteraceae (including Zostera capricorni, Zostera muelleri and Heterozostera tasmanica), Halophila spp. Ruppia megacarpa,  mangrove (Avicennia marina, Aegiceras corniculatum, and saltmarsh (all species combined). Area calculations were determined in ArcGIS. The layer topology was checked for gaps and overlaps. All polygons were checked for accurate class allocation. All polygons are topologically consistent.
Temporal extent	2000 - 2019
Distribution format	ESRI Shapefile, ESRI Geodatabase, web map service
Key words	ECOLOGY, HABITAT, FISHERIES, MARINE, ESTUARIES, VEGETATION
Maintenance frequency	Not planned
Use limitation	The use of this data is limited to the Creative Commons License as listed below.
Legal Restrictions	This data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License with full credit given to NSW Department of Primary Industries.