Data Management Plan

These files contain classified topographic and bathymetric lidar data as unclassified valid topographic data (1), valid topographic data classified as ground (2), noise (7), and valid bathymetric data (11). Classes 1, 2 and 7 are defined in accordance with the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) classification standards, while class 11 is specific to NOAA OCM. These data were collected by the Compact Hydrographic Airborne Rapid Total Survey (CHARTS) system along the coast of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. CHARTS integrates topographic and bathymetric lidar sensors, a digital camera and a hyperspectral imager on a single remote sensing platform for use in coastal mapping and charting activities. Data coverage generally extends along the coastline from the waterline inland 500 meters (topography) and offshore 1,000 meters or to laser extinction (bathymetry). Native lidar data is not generally in a format accessible to most Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Specialized in-house and commercial software packages are used to process the native lidar data into 3-dimensional positions that can be imported into GIS software for visualization and further analysis. The 3-D position data are sub-divided into a series of LAS files, each covering approximately 5 kilometers of shoreline. The format of the file is LAS version 1.2.

In addition to these lidar point data, the bare earth Digital Elevation Models (DEM) created from the lidar point data are also available. These data are available for custom download at the link provided in the URL section of this metadata record.

Lineage Statement:
The USACE collected, processed, and provided the data to the NOAA Office for Coastal Management (OCM). OCM received the data and processed it to be available for custom download from the Data Access Viewer (DAV) and for bulk download from https.

Process Steps:

• These data were collected using the CHARTS system. It is owned by the Naval Oceanographic Office and operated through contract. The system collects topographic lidar data at 10 kHz, bathymetric lidar data at 1 kHz and RGB imagery at 1Hz. A CASI-1500 hyperspectral line scanner is integrated with the system as well. Aircraft position, velocity and acceleration information are collected through a combination of Novatel and POS A/V 410 equipment.All raw data streams are transferred to the office for downloading and processing in SHOALS GCS software. Aircraft position data are processed using POSPac software and the results are combined with the lidar data to produce3-D positions for each lidar shot. Upon inspection and QA/QC in the software packages Fledermaus and PFM_ABE, anomalous data are flagged as invalid. PFM_ABE's charts2las module then converts all valid data from ellipsoid to orthometric heights based on the NGS' GEOID03 model and exports topographic and bathymetric data as a series of LAS files, one file per flight line. The format of the file is LAS version 1.2. Data are classified as 0 (valid topographic data), 21 (valid topographic data acquired with the bathymetric sensor), 27 (invalid topographic and bathymetric data), 29 (valid bathymetric data).
• The flightline LAS files are imported into GeoCue V7.0.3.5, which is a geospatial workflow production and management software tool employed by JALBTCX to perform and monitor production of data products. Upon import into GeoCue,the flightline LAS files are divided into a series of boxes, each of which are 1500 meters in length and width. A customized classification macro, built upon the TerraScan V11 module within Microstation V8i, classifies valid topographic data as ground points (2) and unclassified points (1). Upon completion the macro, the classification results undergo quality control and any misclassified points are manually edited. In areas of dense vegetation the bare earth ground points might be incorrectly classified due to the inability of the laser to penetrate the canopy and reach the bare ground. In these areas, JALBTCX defaults to the algorithms ground surface instead of manually reclassifying those points. The final classification results are comprised of individual lidar points with classifications of ground (2) or unclassified (1). They are partitioned into a series of 5 km delivery boxes, one Classified LAS file per box. The format of the file is LAS version 1.2. Data are classified as 1 (valid non-ground topographic data), 2 (valid ground topographic data), 21 (valid topographic data acquired with the bathymetric sensor), 27 (invalid topographic and bathymetric data), 29 (valid bathymetric data). Horizontal positions, provided in decimal degrees of latitude and longitude, are referenced to the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83). Vertical positions are referenced to the NAD83 ellipsoid and provided in meters. The National Geodetic Survey's (NGS) GEOID03 model is used to transform the vertical positions from ellipsoid to orthometric heights referenced to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD88).
• 2013-12-01 00:00:00 - The NOAA Office for Coastal Management (OCM) received the las files from JALBTCX on hard drive. The files contained lidar elevation and intensity measurements. The data were received in Geographic, NAD83 coordinates and were vertically referenced to NAVD88 using the Geoid03 model. The vertical units of the data were meters. OCM performed the following processing for data storage and Digital Coast provisioning purposes:1. All points in Class 29 (valid bathymetry) were converted to Class 11.2. The topographic las files were compressed to laz v1.2 using LASTools' laszip software.3. GPS Week Time Information was converted to Adjusted Standard GPS Time using LASTools' las2las software.4. The topographic laz files were converted from orthometric (NAVD88) heights to ellipsoidal heights using Geoid03.

This data can be obtained on-line at the following URL:https://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/#/lidar/search/where:ID=2611;