Pond & Lake Mapping

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Lake mapping is an extremely useful tool when it comes to properly managing lakes, which includes ponds, reservoirs and impoundments. Lake maps provide professional water resource managers with crucial information about the physical and biological features of lakes. 

Examples of physical features are shallow coves, steep drop-offs into deep water, deep channels, sunken islands, peninsulas, rock piles, sunken timber, soft organic sediments and hard lake bottoms. Biological features focus on the locations and densities of submerged aquatic plants or aquatic weed beds in lakes. Information obtained from lake mapping is essential when evaluating various in-lake management techniques and developing comprehensive lake and watershed management/restoration plans.  

Aqua Link team of professional pond and lake managers use boats equipped with sophisticated electronic water depth plot charting and GPS equipment to quickly acquire large amounts of accurate lake water depth and location data. In turn, these lake data are used to prepare lake water depth maps known as lake bathymetry maps. 

Lake bathymetry maps are then used to determine important lake characteristics such as minimum and maximum water depths, mean (average) water depth, lake water volume, volume of hypolimnion, flushing rate and hydraulic residence time.  The above parameters are needed to determine hydrologic, nutrient and sediment loading budgets for lakes and reservoirs.