Reconciling Height Datums in Australia: The Bathymetric Component

Vertical height datums are necessary references for height measurements over the Earth, but Australia uses different systems for land and sea. This report from the Australian Ocean Data Network presents a methodology to reconcile bathymetry datums and calculate uncertainty for Mean Sea Level observations. The work aims to aid the creation of an ellipsoidal MSL surface with uncertainties for coastal Australia.

Use Cases

• Joining adjacent bathymetry datasets based on reconciled height datums.
• Calculating uncertainty for short-span Mean Sea Level observations relative to a long-term reference epoch.
• Creating an ellipsoidal Mean Sea Level surface with uncertainties for coastal applications.
• Evaluating alternative options for high and low water tidal planes to define the intertidal zone.

Strengths

• Focuses on a specific, documented problem of datum disparity between terrestrial and marine height data in Australia.
• Presents a methodology to increase the number of available MSL observations around the coast.
• Last updated 2026-06-04 05:28:09.768002, indicating recent maintenance.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Methodologies for computing uncertainties of Lowest Astronomical Tide and Highest Astronomical Tide tidal planes were not developed.
• Row count and data scale are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Research report from CRC-SI Project 114.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 05:28:09.768002

Geography

Australia