North Wollongong Seabed Bathymetry and Backscatter Survey, 2017-2022

A bathymetry survey acquired by the NSW government from 13 Aug 2017 to 4 Mar 2022 onboard the RV Bombora. The dataset contains 32-bit floating point geotiff files of bathymetry and backscatter in 5-meter resolution for the area from Bellambi Point to Stanwell Park. It was created as part of the SeabedNSW program to provide a baseline dataset and map seabed type distribution.

Use Cases

• Modeling coastal erosion and sediment transport based on high-resolution bathymetry.
• Classifying seabed habitats and substrates based on backscatter intensity data.
• Creating baseline maps for marine spatial planning and conservation based on the surveyed spatial distribution of seabed types.

Strengths

• Data collection spanned nearly five years, from 13 Aug 2017 to 4 Mar 2022.
• High-resolution 5-meter bathymetry and backscatter grids derived from multibeam sonar.
• Standard operating procedures and a survey report provide documented methodology.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset scale are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE), Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

13 Aug 2017 – 4 Mar 2022

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-05 06:15:52.431407; freshness should be verified.

Geography

North Wollongong, NSW, Australia (Bellambi Point to Stanwell Park)