DOI: 10.14466/CefasDataHub.162

Description

The AquaSmart project aim was to identify potential areas of aquaculture development around the island of Penang, Malaysia for 5 different species; ogonori seaweed (Gracilaria lichenodes), blood cockle (Tegillarca granosa), slipper oyster (Crassostrea iredalei), tropical oyster (Crassostrea belcheri), and barramundi (Lates calcarifer). To achieve this aquaculture suitability layers were generated that represent the areas that have the best range of environmental conditions for these species when grown under aquaculture (farming) conditions. These spatial data layers were generated in August 2024, and refined in September 2024 following comments from the 2nd AquaSmart workshop in Malaysia.

This data comprises the spatial data habitat suitability layers for the 5 species as GeoTiff raster data, along with a georeferenced layered pdf map which serves to enable non-specialist users to be able to understand the conflicts and potential area of aquaculture development in the region.

Suitability was assessed by classifying the environmental variables as either unsuitable (growth unlikely), suboptimal (limited growth) or optimal (ideal growth conditions) and overlaying the classified layers to generate a suitability score of 0 (one or more environmental variables were unsuitable), or a value between 1 (all environmental variables were suboptimal for growth) and 2 (all environmental variables were optimal for growth). Environmental data was taken from data sets from 01/01/2018 to 31/12/2022 and 4 seasonal time periods were used in the analysis; North-East monsoon (1st Dec to 31st Mar); inter-monsoon period 1 (1st Apr to 31st May); South-west monsoon (1st Jun to 30th Sep); and inter-monsoon period 2 (1st Oct to 30th Nov). All processing was performed in R (version 4.1.2); prior to the processing, the source data layers were resampled to a grid with a resolution of 0.01° using ArcGIS Pro to ensure alignment and consistency of gridded data. The environmental 3rd party data layers used are detailed in the attached supplementary information, along with the thresholds for each species.

Contributors

Heal, Richard / Mohammad-Razalli, Norhanis / Jaya-Ram, Annette / Aileen Tan, Shau Hwai / Yasin, Zulfigar / Capuzzo, Elisa

Subject

Aquaculture / Aquatic environment / Mariculture

Start Date

01/10/2023

End Date

31/10/2024

Year Published

2025

Version

1

Citation

Heal et al. (2025). AquaSmart Aquaculture Suitability Layers for Penang, Malaysia. Cefas, UK. V1. doi: https://doi.org/10.14466/CefasDataHub.162

Rights List

Open Government Licence

DOI

10.14466/CefasDataHub.162