NOAA Chesapeake Bay Lidar: Topobathymetric Point Cloud for Maryland Coast

NOAA Chesapeake Bay MD1804 Option 1 West 4 topobathymetric lidar data were collected by NV5 Geospatial, Inc. using a Riegl VQ-880-GH system. The dataset covers approximately 492.7 square kilometers of the Chesapeake Bay area near Solomons, California, and other Maryland census designated places. It comprises 2,593 LAS tiles, each 500 m x 500 m, collected over nine missions from March to April 2019.

Use Cases

• Modeling coastal erosion and sediment transport based on combined topographic and bathymetric elevation data.
• Analyzing submerged object detection and water column characteristics based on ASPRS classification standards.
• Creating high-resolution digital elevation models for coastal zones based on lidar intensity and return number data.
• Studying nearshore habitat and infrastructure planning based on detailed ground and bathymetric bottom classifications.

Strengths

• Data follows ASPRS classification standards with specific classes for ground, bathymetric bottom, water column, and submerged objects.
• Covers approximately 492.7 square kilometers with 2,593 individual 500 m x 500 m LAS tiles.
• Includes multiple data attributes per point, such as lidar intensity, number of returns, return number, time, and scan angle.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale ML projects.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Collected via airborne Riegl VQ-880-GH lidar system by NV5 Geospatial, Inc.

Time Range

2019-03-12 to 2019-04 19

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 21:03:39.680581; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Portion of the Chesapeake Bay and nearby census designated places in Maryland, USA.