All scientific data collected by the Australian Antarctic program (AAp) are eventually described in the Catalogue of Australian Antarctic and Subantarctic Metadata (CAASM). CAASM can be used to search through AAp data descriptions, and it also provides links to access publicly available datasets, which can either be immediately downloaded or obtained from the Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AADC).

Citation
Terauds, A., Wauchope, H. S., Wen, W., Lee, J. R. (2024) Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (Points and Polygons) 2024 Update, Ver. 1, Australian Antarctic Data Centre - doi:10.26179/4qk0-cz71, Accessed: 2026-06-11
Title
Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (Points and Polygons) 2024 Update
Data Centre
Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia
DOI
doi:10.26179/4qk0-cz71
Created Date
2024-11-07
Revision Date
2024-11-07
Expected Date of Data Release
2024-11-07
Data Version
1
Parent record
None

Description

This is the 2024 data update. For the 2018 update, please see the link below.

Starting with the most recently updated polygon shapefile of ASPAs (Terauds and Lee 2016), which contained some minor improvement on the original ASPA spatial layer first made publicly available in 2011, we first cross-checked the location of ASPA polygons with the spatially explicit locations provided in the ASPAs Management Plans. Once polygons were aligned with the Management Plans, we then georeferenced the maps provided in the management plans to check the ASPA boundaries in relation to known landscape features, In some cases, there was a lack of concurrence between co-ordinates, PDF map, coastline, rock layer or Google Earth. In these cases the following protocol was followed: snap to coordinates (unless clearly wrong), otherwise align to rock outcrop layer based on the PDF map, otherwise align to coastline. Full details of the updates made to each ASPA can be found in the README file accompanying the updated layer.

The downloadable dataset contains a folder with a points dataset, a folder with a polygon dataset, and a word document with further information.

For ASPAS and ASMAs within the AAT please see: https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/aspas_asmas_aat - doi:10.4225/15/5a963cbd74a3a.

For the 2018 data update please see: https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/AAS_4296_Updated_ASPAs_2018 - doi:10.26179/5c1b10c534c19.

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Purpose

Provide the most accurate spatial layer of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas.

Quality

See the readme file in the dataset download for more information.

Access

These data are publicly available for download from the provided URL.

Temporal Coverages

Spatial Coverages

Science Keywords

Additional Keywords

  • ASPA
  • ANTARCTIC SPECIALLY PROTECTED AREAS

Locations

  • GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR
  • CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA

Platforms

  • MAPS

Instruments

  • Computer

Researchers

  • terauds, aleks (INVESTIGATOR,TECHNICAL CONTACT,DIF AUTHOR)

Use Constraints

This data set conforms to the CCBY Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=AAS_4296_Updated_ASPAs_2024 when using these data.

Project

    ISO Topic

    • ENVIRONMENT
    • IMAGERY/BASE MAPS/EARTH COVER

    Dataset Language

    • English

    Orignating Centre

    • Australian Antarctic Division

    Dataset Progress

    • COMPLETE

    IDN Node

    • AMD/AU
    • AMD
    • CEOS

    Publications

    • Wauchope, H., Shaw, J.D. and Terauds, A. (2019) A snapshot of biodiversity protection in Antarctica, Nature Communications, 10(1), doi:10.1038/s41467-019-08915-6
    • Terauds, A. and Mazurek, R. (2023) Antarctic Specially Protected Areas and Antarctic Specially Managed Areas in the Australian Antarctic Territory - GIS polygon dataset, Australian Antarctic Data Centre, doi:10.26179/5c1b10c534c19

    Metadata Revision History

      2024-11-07 - record created by Dave Connell on behalf of Aleks Terauds.

    Creative Commons License