Solitary Islands Seabed Bathymetry and Backscatter Maps at 5m Resolution

32-bit floating point geotiff files of bathymetry and backscatter in 5m resolution were acquired for the Solitary Islands Marine Park area. The NSW Department of Planning and Environment collected the data onboard the RV Bombora from 31 Aug 2022 to 31 Jul 2023 using a multibeam sonar. This dataset provides a baseline for mapping seabed types as part of the SeabedNSW program.

Use Cases

• Map seabed type spatial distribution based on bathymetry and backscatter data.
• Establish baseline seabed conditions for marine park management.
• Analyze underwater topography for coastal and marine research.
• Integrate high-resolution seabed data with other marine environmental datasets.

Strengths

• Data acquired over a 11-month period (Aug 2022 - Jul 2023) providing temporal consistency.
• High-resolution (5m) bathymetry and backscatter derived from processed multibeam sonar data.
• Processing details and standard operating procedures are documented and available.

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 dataset is explicitly not to be used for navigational purposes.

Provenance

Source

NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE)

Collection Method

Acquired onboard the RV Bombora using a R2Sonic 2022 multibeam sonar.

Time Range

31 Aug 2022 – 31 Jul 2023

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-16 13:54:23.285948; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Solitary Islands Marine Park area (Gumbaynggirr Yaegl)