Forster NSW Bathymetry and Backscatter Survey at 5m Resolution (2019-2020)

A bathymetry survey of the Forster, Cape Hawke to Black Head area in New South Wales, Australia. The dataset was acquired by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment between 27 February 2019 and 14 October 2020 using a multibeam sonar system. It contains 32-bit floating point geotiff files for bathymetry and backscatter at a 5-meter resolution.

Use Cases

• Modeling coastal erosion and sediment transport based on high-resolution seabed topography.
• Mapping benthic habitats and seabed types based on the described backscatter and bathymetry data.
• Creating baseline environmental datasets for marine park management as referenced in the description.
• Supporting coastal infrastructure planning with detailed underwater terrain models.

Strengths

• Data was collected over a 20-month period from 27 Feb 2019 to 14 Oct 2020, providing temporal consistency.
• High-resolution 5-meter grid for both bathymetry and backscatter data.
• Processing details and standard operating procedures are documented and publicly accessible via a provided URL.
• Data acquisition used a specific multibeam sonar system (R2Sonic 2022) and processing software chain (Hypack, Qimera, FMGT, etc.).

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The description explicitly states the dataset is not to be used for navigational purposes, limiting its application scope.

Provenance

Source

NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE), acquired onboard the RV Bombora.

Collection Method

Multibeam sonar survey (R2Sonic 2022), processed with Hypack, R2Sonic GUI, POSView, POSPac, Qimera, and FMGT software.

Time Range

27 February 2019 to 14 October 2020

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 18:43:07.825676; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Forster, from Cape Hawke to Black Head, New South Wales, Australia