Derived data product DEA Tidal Composites

Picture the coast in tidal time

Intertidal zones are coastal environments exposed to both air and water, at low and high tide consecutively, and include sandy beaches, tidal flats, rocky shores and reefs. They also characterise critical coastal habitats and ecosystems and support a wide range of species and ecosystem-services. Increasingly though, these dynamic environments are faced with threats from land reclamation, coastal erosion and rising sea levels, amongst others.

The ever-changing nature of the tides makes it difficult to systematically capture consistent imagery of the intertidal zone, particularly across large regions and especially in remote areas of the country. Geomedian statistical techniques provide a robust method to combine tide-attributed time-series satellite imagery and produce representative and artefact free imagery ‘composites’ of Australia’s coastal high and low tide environments.