Data: Australian Estuaries
One of the more interesting coastal feature that I encounter while mapping is an estuary, that place where ocean salt water mixes with fresh water to form interesting enclaves teeming with life.
According to Dept of Environment SA Government "estuaries and the lands surrounding them are places of transition - where water from the land meets and mixes with the open sea. Estuaries are neither marine nor terrestrial environments. They are generally found at the end of rivers and may be large systems, like the Murray Mouth and Coorong, or small, like the Western River estuary on Kangaroo Island. Other estuaries, such as the Port River/Barker Inlet, are more influenced by tidal exchange or stormwater discharge. Whichever the type of estuary, its health is dependent on being linked to both the land and the sea."
Australian Estuaries - MapThe above map displays the locations of 974 estuaries scattered along the Australian shoreline. I found the data at OzEstuaries - Estuary Data. What you will find at this page is a listing of the 7-states that make up Australia (states, right?). Select a state and you will be given a list of estuaries located in that state in a .csv (comma-delimited) file format. It will drop readily into MS Excel. I picked off a state at a time and compiled a master list. I decided what to keep for my mapping purposes. I then imported to point data information into Marplot into a new layer called Australian Estuaries.
Australian Estuaries - Image Detail (S-53-30_2000)Now, when I am mapping a shoreline and I encounter a couple of estuaries, I merely open my world map and zoom into my study area and...voila!
Australian Estuaries - Map DetailI know that I am working with Baird Bay 1143-232 (SA) 2-3 and Venus Bay 1142-463 (SA) 3-3. I know that both of these estuaries are "tide dominated" (2nd-3) and Baird Bay is "modified" (1st-2), whereas Venus Bay is "largely unmodified"(1st-3). Each entry contains loads of information (25-column+).
Enjoy the data.
OT: Data
