Seafloor geophysical mapping: Renewable energy use case and the importance of open access data

The lack of geophysical data in the oceans reduces our understanding of the geology and our ability to grow Australia's blue economy. Geophysical surveys that acquire high resolution data using multibeam echosounders and sub-bottom profilers provide essential information about the seafloor and are required for developing offshore infrastructure such as offshore wind energy farms. CSIRO's Marine National Facility conducts offshore geophysical mapping across Australia and Antarctica with R.V. Investigator, Australia's only national ocean science vessel. R.V. Investigator is equipped with the latest acoustic sensors and is capable of surveying any part of Australia's marine estate, the third largest in the world. Data acquired from R.V. Investigator is published in open access repositories such as the NCMI Information and Data Centre and AusSeabed for public use. Published data is thoroughly processed using up to date techniques and is ready for visualisation. Leveraging pre-existing data such as this is useful for pre-feasibility studies when assessing areas for developing offshore infrastructure. For example, the installation of wind turbines requires an understanding of bathymetry, slope, water depth, type of substrate and geological and artificial hazards. This work is currently topical to Tasmania as on offshore wind energy farm has been proposed in the Bass Strait and if any wind energy farm is to be developed, thorough geophysical investigations will need to occur before the first turbine is installed.