Guidelines on both spatial standards from, and the merging of, digital terrain data for emergency risk management planning

This paper describes the development of a set of guidelines on the use and integration of digital terrain data for Emergency Risk Management (ERM) planning, specifically in relation to flood hazard. The guidelines were developed by a node of the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRC-SI) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, in conjunction with NSW Government Agencies. The guidelines focus on the applied use of data acquired by Airborne Laser Scanner (ALS) and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) for digital elevation modelling and flood risk assessment at catchment to regional scales. Operational procedures for data capture and ground survey are outlined. Standardised techniques for generation of digital terrain and elevation data, accuracy assessment and feature extraction are demonstrated. The integration of geospatial data for flood risk and hazard assessment is discussed. The guidelines were designed to assist Local and State Government Agencies in undertaking future GIS based flood studies. The completed guidelines are available through the CRC-SI