Remotely sensed topographic (elevation) and bathymetric (depth) information were acquired for the NSW Central and Hunter coasts (Soldiers Point, Port Stephens; Newcastle – Swansea; The Entrance - Avoca) using Airborne LiDAR Bathymetry (ALB - a combination of Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) and Laser Airborne Depth Sounding (LADS) sensors) during March 2008. This resource defines the combined extent (169 km2) for the 3 surveyed areas (Port Stephens 19 km2; Swansea 109 km2; The Entrance 41 km2). Data were acquired by Tenix LADS Corporation (now Fugro) on behalf of NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (now the Department of Planning and Environment) using a LADS Mk II Airborne System aboard DeHavilland Dash 8-200. Funding was provided through DECC with an objective to acquire high-quality, high-resolution baseline data to support coastal erosion studies and tsunami modelling. The survey requirement was to provide data at a minimum of 5 x 5m laser spot spacing from the mean high-water mark to ~200m inland, and from the shore, seaward (LADS - bathymetry) to the point of laser extinction (~30m water depth depending on in-water conditions). Positioning data were collected on the ellipsoid ITRF 2014 GRS80 in UTM Z56 and post-processed using local base stations (CORSnet NSW) to provide a Post Processed Kinematic GNSS solution for final aircraft trajectory before being applied to all data. This resource is a shapefile that defines three areas with a combined extent of 168 km2 of data. Data types available is as gridded GeoTiff (L3) transformed to GDA94 Z56. Other data types may be available as ESRI topo-bathy rasters and contours, tab delimited ascii XYZ, relative reflectance data (terrestrial, marine) and Quality Control (QC) documentation (contained within survey report) via the NSW DPE Information Asset Register (IAR) (metadata, coverage shape), SEED (https://seed.nsw.gov.au or upon request. The data are intended to inform coastal and marine management and are ‘not for navigation’.

Data files can be obtained from the ELVIS site https://elevation.fsdf.org.au/