About the e-ATLAS

Discover, learn, investigate and download environmental research and reference data for the Great Barrier Reef, its catchments, the Wet Tropics and the Torres Strait regions.

The e-Atlas is a website and mapping system for presenting environmental research data in an accessible form that promotes greater use of this information. It is also a data management system for preserving and encouraging reuse of this data.

Decades of research have generated a large amount of data and information on the Great Barrier Reef and the terrestrial tropical ecosystems. Until now this information has generally been under-used. The e-Atlas aims to promote collaboration and support the work of management agencies, researchers, reef-based industries and community groups.

From the site, users can discover what research is being done in a given region or on a given topic, then learn more about this research and its outcomes. The data behind the research can be investigated through an interactive mapping system and, where possible, the data itself can be downloaded. The e-Atlas also contains a wide range of reference datasets that complement its research content.

The e-Atlas is the primary data and knowledge repository for 38 NERP Tropical Ecosystems Hub projects, 6 Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program projects and historically, the Marine and Tropical Science Research Facility. This research covers a wide range of topics some of which include: seagrass, coral reefs, turtles, dugongs, seabirds, bathymetry, fish abundance, Crown Of Thorns Starfish, rainforest revegetation, wet tropics species distributions, etc.

The e-Atlas was initially developed in 2008, funded by the Marine and Tropical Science Research Facility and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.The e-Atlas is now supported through funding from the Australian Government's National Environmental Research Program and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

The e-Atlas has a sister product, the Ningaloo Atlas, which is based on the same philosophy and technology.

Technical Overview

The e-Atlas comprises five components:

1. A Website to host project pages, reports, articles (implemented in Drupal 6);

2. An Enduring Repository of all the data, metadata, maps and scientific reports, implemented as a secure file store;
3. Tools to assist in the preparation of datasets(implemented using R scripts, GDAL, and ArcMap);
4. Mapping system provides visualisation of the research data, enabling quick previewing and inspection to allow users to see if the data is fit for purpose (implemented using GeoServer, ncWMS and AtlasMapper).
5. Metadata catalogue to provide documentation on datasets and allow them to be discoverable (implemented using GeoNetwork and the AIMS Metadata viewer).

All the software in the e-Atlas systems are open-source. 

Partners

To find out more about the collaborating organisations, please click on their logos below.