Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Features (Reef boundaries, QLD Mainland, Islands, Cays, Rocks and Dry Reefs) (GBRMPA)

This dataset contains coastal features within and adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area. This dataset consists of two shapefiles GBR_FEATURES.shp and GBR_DRY_REEF.shp. The GBR_FEATURES shapefile contains the following features:
* Queensland mainland coastline, 
* Major and other coral reef structures (as defined by the reef shoal edge), 
* Islands and rocks (exposed and submerged), 
* Major coral cay features. 
The GBR_DRY_REEFS contains major coral reef structures (as defined by the reef shoal edge) that are tidal, drying or emergent reef areas.

The reef features extend north above the GBRWHA to just within the Torres Strait region. 

The features have not been statistically tested with precision survey techniques.  Positional accuracy varies considerably and dataset should NOT be used for navigation purposes, however, for general use the coverage can be regarded as having a nominal scale of 1:250,000. Inshore areas are significantly worse in positional accuracy than offshore areas.

This dataset corresponds to the zoning within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park effective 1st July 2004. It is derived from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Zoning Plan 2003.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is a multiple-use area. Zoning helps to manage and protect the values of the Marine Park that users enjoy. Zoning Plans define what activities occur in which locations both to protect the marine environment and to separate potentially conflicting activities. Revised zoning of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was introduced in July 2004 as part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority's Representative Areas Programme.

Between 1999 and 2004, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority undertook a systematic planning and consultative program to develop new zoning for the Marine Park. The primary aim of the program was to better protect the range of biodiversity in the Great Barrier Reef, by increasing the extent of no-take areas (or highly protected areas, locally known as ‘Green Zones’), ensuring they included 'representative' examples of all different habitat types - hence the name, the Representative Areas Program or RAP. Whilst increasing the protection of biodiversity, a further aim was to maximise the benefits and minimise the negative impacts of the rezoning on the existing users of the Marine Park. Both these aims were achieved by a comprehensive program of scientific input, community involvement and innovation [1].

In each zones there are a range of activities that are allowed, disallowed or require a permit. The following outlines a summary of activities that are disallowed in each zone. Please refer to [2] for a more detailed and authoritative description of all restrictions within each zone:





General Use Zone: General use, some activities require a permit.




Habitat Protection Zone: No trawling, some activities require permits.




Conservation Park Zone: No trawling, limited crabbing and line fishing.




Buffer Zone: No aquaculture, bait netting, crabbing, harvesting fishing, collecting, spearfishing, line fishing, netting and trawling. Trolling for pelagic fish is allowed.




Scientific Research Zone: Research areas primarily around scientific research facilities. Same as Buffer zone but with no trolling.




Marine National Park Zone (Green): 'no-take' area. The following are allowed: boating, diving, photography and limited impact research. Some other activities are allowed with permits.




Preservation Zone (Pink): 'no go' area. No activities are allowed except research activities with a permit.



Official maps derived from this dataset can be downloaded from the GBRMPA Zoning Maps [3] page.

This dataset can now be downloaded directly from GBRMPA's Geohub.

Note: This metadata record was created for the eAtlas and is not authoritative. Please contact GBRMPA for more information. 

GBR_FEATURES.shp:

Polygon Vector Shape file (5376 features)
GBR_ID: A number that is made up of a two-digit number representing the latitude band the feature is in (LAT_ID) and a three or four-digit number representing the sequential number of a particular feature complex (GROUP_ID), e.g. an island with an adjacent reef/cay/rock etc should have the same GROUP_ID    (19-051)
SORT_GBR_I:     A whole number for sorting  (19051)
GBR_NAME:   Great Barrier Reef MP Name  (Five Trees Cay (No 1))
QLD_NAME:   Queensland Government Previous Name (Five Trees Cay (No 1))
FEATURE_C:  a three-digit number representing the type of feature, e,g mainland, island, cay etc (102)
FEAT_NAME:  Name of feature (Cay, Island, Mainland, Reef, Rock, Sand)
SUB_NO: Multiple Feature Identification Number: a two-digit number that is linked to the SUB_ID of a feature. The SUB_ID is a letter that identifies multiple features of the same type in a group, e.g. multiple reefs surrounding an island are labelled a, b, c, d etc - these will be numbered 101, 102, 103, 104 etc. If the SUB_ID is "s", it refers to a single feature and will be given the number 100 (101)
LABEL_ID:   GBR_ID plus SUB_ID if not an S (S is a singular feature and does not need a sub-id label)   (19-051a)
X_COORD:    Centroid Longitude (DD) in GDA94 decimal degrees    (150.221849)
Y_COORD:    Centroid Latitude (DD) in GDA94 decimal degrees (-22.227123)
CODE:   GBR_ID plus SUB_NO plus FEATURE_CODE with hyphens   (19-051-101-102)
UNIQUE_ID:  GBR_ID plus SUB_NO plus FEATURE_CODE with no hyphens. This is to be used as the unique ID for the oracle database   (19051102101)

GBR_DRY_REEFS.shp:

This shows areas of the reef that dry or the tops of the reefs.
Polygon Vector Shape file (2318 features)

Errata:
The following errors were determined from an analysis of this dataset undertaken by Eric Lawrey in April 2025 by comparison with Sentinel 2 composite imagery (Hammerton and Lawrey, 2024).
Features with duplicate CODEs:
10-458-104-103, 12-140-100-106, 18-014-100-102, 16-028-102-102, 14-003-100-104, 20-033-100-104, 20-041-101-102, 20-227-100-104, 99-000-100-100, 23-059-100-102
Most of these duplicates correspond to what should be a multi-part polygon being split into multiple single parts with the same attributes. This can lead to the a false count in the number of reefs.

This analysis found over 120 false positive reef features, 58 reefs that are actually sand banks, and 36 reefs that are actually rocky reefs rather than coral reefs. There is also at least 360 missing reefs from the mapping, predominantly in the southern GBR. It should be noted that this analysis was not comprehensive 

Reference:
Hammerton, M., &amp; Lawrey, E. (2024). North Australia Sentinel 2 Satellite Composite Imagery - 15th percentile true colour (NESP MaC 3.17, AIMS) (2nd Ed.) [Data set]. eAtlas. https://doi.org/10.26274/HD2Z-KM55

Tags: Cays, Coastline, Dry reef, GREAT BARRIER REEF, Land Surface | Geomorphology | Coastal Landforms/processes, Mapping, Marine, Oceans | Coastal Processes | Coral Reefs, QUEENSLAND, Reef boundary, marine
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network