2016 NOAA Lidar Topobathy Survey of Puerto Rico Coastline

Puerto Rico coastal data covering 309.3 square miles, collected by the NOAA National Geodetic Survey from February to March 2016. The dataset consists of 3,463 tiles, each 500 meters by 500 meters, containing classified lidar points for topography and bathymetry. Data is provided in LAS 1.2 format with classifications including ground, water surface, and bathymetric bottom.

Use Cases

• Modeling coastal erosion and flood inundation based on integrated topographic and bathymetric elevation data.
• Creating high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) for shoreline mapping based on classified ground and water surface points.
• Analyzing nearshore seafloor topography for habitat or navigation studies based on bathymetric bottom classifications.
• Calibrating satellite-derived bathymetry estimates using in-situ lidar measurements of the water column and seafloor.

Strengths

• Data covers a defined project area of 309.3 square miles along the Puerto Rico coast.
• Contains 3,463 individual, systematically tiled data units for manageable processing.
• Points are classified into specific categories (e.g., ground, water surface, bathymetric bottom) supporting focused analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is from a specific campaign in early 2016; changes to the coastline since then are not captured.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected by the NOAA National Geodetic Survey Remote Sensing Division using a Riegl VQ-880G lidar system across twenty missions.

Time Range

2016-02 19 to 2016-03-31

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 21:51:22.696245; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Shoreline regions of Puerto Rico, North Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean Sea.