The results of a project to assess coastal vulnerability in Western Australia and prepare for possible sea level rise have been made available.

The models include complete data files of water depths and broad seabed imagery from pseudo-reflectance and a high resolution coastal 3D model of the land and seabed between Two Rocks and Cape Naturaliste in Western Australia.

The project was fully funded by the Western Australian Planning Commission and is being managed by the Western Australia Departments of Planning and Transport, who are also handling the resulting data.

It includes a digital elevation model, geo-referenced digital aerial mosaic imagery, surface images of the bathymetry data at 10 metre resolution and seabed data classification.

The digital elevation model will be the primary data set used to analyse the impacts of climate change on infrastructure and the environment.

The models will be an important tool used for planning and managing WA’s coastline. The data will be used to provide a baseline for undertaking continuous studies to assess the vulnerability of the built environment on the local coastline. It will also help model natural disasters, inform the development of local planning projects, and help identify areas that need protecting.

The data was collected by Tenix LADS Corporation (now Fugro LADS Corporation) on behalf of the Western Australian state government by a Lidar hydrographic survey.

More information on the project can be found on the Western Australia state government web site.