This dataset contains the raw data for the ESurf paper Hautekiet et al. (2023). The supplementary material includes the DSMs of four experiments derived from laser line scanning that were used to investigate the effect of spatio-temporal plant colonization patterns (bare (2x) – hydrochorous – patchy) on tidal channel network development. These DSMs have been processed (calibrated and corrected), filtered to remove outliers (10th and 90th percentiles were excluded) and interpolated to a 3 x 3 mm grid size (MAT format). Apart from that, the data package contains overhead imagery (TIF format). Data was generated for experimental estuaries in the 20m long Metronome tidal flume (https://www.uu.nl/metronome). For contact, please mail to: sarah.hautekiet@uantwerpen.be or m.g.kleinhans@uu.nl