North Wollongong Seabed Bathymetry and Backscatter Survey

Bathymetry and backscatter data for the North Wollongong coastline from Bellambi Point to Stanwell Park, NSW. The dataset was acquired by the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment using an R2Sonic 2022 multibeam sonar onboard the RV Bombora between August 2017 and March 2022. It consists of 32-bit floating point GeoTIFF files at 5-meter resolution, processed from raw sonar data.

Use Cases

• Model seabed terrain and slope from 5m resolution bathymetry GeoTIFFs for hydrodynamic studies.
• Classify seabed types (e.g., sand, rock, seagrass) by analyzing patterns in the backscatter intensity data.
• Establish a baseline for coastal erosion monitoring by comparing future bathymetric surveys to this dataset.
• Map the spatial distribution of benthic habitats using combined bathymetry and backscatter layers.

Strengths

• Survey conducted over a nearly 5-year period from 2017 to 2022.
• Data products include both bathymetry and backscatter layers at a consistent 5-meter resolution.
• Detailed standard operating procedures and a survey report document the acquisition and processing methodology.

Limitations

• Specific row/column counts and total file size are unknown.
• Data is explicitly not intended for navigational purposes, limiting certain maritime applications.
• The multi-year acquisition period may introduce temporal inconsistencies if seabed features changed during the survey.

Provenance

Source

New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment (DPE).

Collection Method

Acquired using an R2Sonic 2022 multibeam sonar system onboard the RV Bombora, processed with Hypack, Qimera, and FMGT software.

Time Range

13 August 2017 to 4 March 2022.

Freshness

Data last updated on platform in April 2026, but survey data collection ended in March 2022.

Geography

North Wollongong coastline, NSW, Australia, from Bellambi Point to Stanwell Park.