Dugong relative density and distribution
James Cook University

Alana Grech and Helene Marsh, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University

Information collected from dugong aerial surveys in Australian waters conducted since the mid 1980's provide empirical data on patterns of dugong distribution and abundance. In conjunction with geostatistical techniques, including universal kriging, aerial survey information was used to develop a spatially-explict model of dugong relative density and distribution calculated at a grid size of 2km × 2km.

Spatially-explicit population models are an important component of species conservation management. The dugongs range is large, complex and dynamic and extends over multiple jurisdictions. Models of dugong relative density and distribution in Australian waters were developed to inform government agencies and other interested parties on the suitability of various managment regimes, including the design of area closures.

Per request by the data provider, point observations are not included. Please contact the data provider if you wish to obtain them. Due to the lack of point observations, some features on the Dataset Detail are not available.
The model outputs (dugong density and conservation values) are downloadable. Switch to [Download] tab and click "Get this data as ESRI shapefile." They are in fact rasters. Refer to the reference for more detail.

Grech, A. and M. Helene. 2007. Prioritising areas for dugong conservation in a marine protected area using a spatially explicit population modelApplied GIS: Volume 3, Number 2

Overview

Attributes described below represent those in the original dataset provided by the provider.
Only minimum required attributes are visible and downlodable online. Other attributes may be obtained upon provider's permission unless otherwise noteded below.

Per request by the data provider, point observations are not included. Please contact the data provider if you wish to obtain them. The following column entries do not reflect the actual data structure.

Attributes in dataset provided

Attribute (table column)	Description
obs_date
obs_time
latitude
longitude
species
sp_tsn
obs_count