The Development of an Australian Marine Spatial Information System (AMSIS) to Support Australian Government Ocean Policy and Multi-Use Marine Activities

Abstract

The Australian Marine Jurisdiction is one of the largest in the world and if ratified by the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, just over half of Australia’s land mass will be below the sea. Australia has national and international responsibility to manage and sustain the marine environment. This chapter describes an initiative being undertaken by Geoscience Australia (GA) to develop an Australian Marine Spatial Information System (AMSIS). The chapter outlines the progress made to date with this development. AMSIS will accurately locate marine features including interests and rights over the Australian Marine Jurisdiction. Arrangements are being made with other custodians of spatial boundary information so that AMSIS will become an accepted source of integrated information. In developing and implementing AMSIS, GA is working closely with many agencies to assist them produce or validate/correct spatial information and to determine the best way to capture and provide access to reliable information in a manner that is consistent with current principles for data management and spatial data infrastructure development. AMSIS is being developed as a decision support system to support regional marine planning, management of marine operations including regulation and enforcement of legislation, and industry development, especially in the identification of interests overlapping or adjacent to the annual offshore petroleum acreage releases. The project is being undertaken in close collaboration with key stakeholders including the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources, The National Oceans Office and the Royal Australian Navy Hydrographic Service as well as other Australian Government departments that have interests in Australia’s marine jurisdiction.