U.S. Coastal Lidar Elevation and Bathymetry, 1996-Present

All coastal U.S. states, the Great Lakes, and territories are covered by this collection of topographic and bathymetric lidar data. The data span more than two decades, from the mid-1990s to the present, and were collected by many partners using various airplane-mounted sensors. NOAA standardizes the delivered data to LAZ format with geographic coordinates and ellipsoid heights in meters.

Use Cases

• Modeling coastal flooding and storm surge based on standardized elevation and bathymetry data.
• Monitoring shoreline change and erosion using multi-decadal topographic lidar strips.
• Planning marine navigation and coastal construction with integrated seafloor and land surface topography.
• Assessing habitat change by analyzing elevation data across county-scale coastal coverage.

Strengths

• Covers all coastal U.S. states, the Great Lakes, and territorial possessions.
• Time series spans more than two decades, from 1996 to the present.
• Data are standardized to a common format (LAZ), projection, and datum for consistency.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low; specific column names, row counts, and license details are not provided.
• Data collection specifics, such as sensor type and spatial resolution, vary across the multi-decadal time span.

Provenance

Source

NOAA Office for Coastal Management / NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

Collection Method

Collected via airplane-mounted topographic and bathymetric lidar sensors by many partners and NOAA-led projects, then reviewed and standardized.

Time Range

1996 - present

Freshness

2025-04-15 12:51:12.778990

Geography

Coastal United States, Great Lakes, and U.S. territories