<div>The Kati Thanda – Lake Eyre Basin (KT–LEB) covers about 1.2 million square kilometres of outback Australia. Although the basin is sparsely populated and relatively undeveloped it hosts nationally significant environmental and cultural heritage, including unique desert rivers, sweeping arid landscapes, and clusters of major artesian springs. The basin experiences climatic extremes that intermittently cycle between prolonged droughts and massive inland floods, with groundwater resources playing a critical role in supporting the many communities, industries, ecological systems, and thriving First Nations culture of the KT–LEB.</div><div><br></div><div>As part of Geoscience Australia’s National Groundwater Systems Project (in the Exploring for the Future Program) this report brings together contemporary data and information relevant to understanding the regional geology, hydrogeology and groundwater systems of Cenozoic rocks and sediments of the KT–LEB. This work represents the first whole-of-basin assessment into these vitally important shallow groundwater resources, which have previously received far less scientific attention than the deeper groundwater systems of the underlying Eromanga Basin (part of the Great Artesian Basin). The new knowledge and insights about the geology and hydrogeology of the basin generated by this study will benefit the many users of groundwater within the region and will help to improve sustainable management and use of groundwater resources across the KT–LEB.</div><div><br></div>

<div>The Geological and Bioregional Assessment Program collected an extensive LiDAR elevation dataset focused on Cooper Creek Floodplain in Queensland and South Australia. The LiDAR data was collected by Fugro Australia Ltd in two aerial surveys in 2019 covering a total survey area of 31,780 km2 across the Cooper Creek Floodplain, and the Thomson and Barcoo river systems (GBA 2021). The data was acquired at an average density of 1 point per square metre, processed and compiled as LiDAR Classified Data in LAS 1 km tiles and 1 m grid DEM in ESRI ascii 1 km tiles. As part of the study of the <em>Cenozoic geology, hydrogeology and groundwater systems of Kati Thanda - Lake Eyre Basin</em> for the National Groundwater Systems project (Exploring for the Future program) (see Evans et al. 2024) these 1 km tiles were mosaiced into a seamless grid and resampled to 10 m cell resolution raster images for ease of visualisation and usability across GIS applications (refer to lineage field of this metadata record for the complete reference details of publications cited in this abstract).</div>