Lake Bathymetry Survey after Storm Event

Question: Do you recommend conducting a bathymetry survey on a pond or lake after a tropical storm or extraordinary rain event?

Answer: Conducting a bathymetry survey, which gives you contours and sediment volumes and sediment placements, is a good idea after a storm event because you could have had some sediment deposition from the storm that you’re unaware of. These surveys are conducted with an airboat on the surface, but it’s using sonar signal to develop a map. A lot of the retention ponds around the southeast/mid-south area have specific capacities that are needed to handle storm water volume.

So we are seeing a lot of ponds that were in compliance to capacity, which handle all the storm water from your streets and non-permeable sources, but now, because of the storm event, either through surge or just a lot of runoff, the sediment has compiled very quickly and now made that pond out of compliance and available to hold all the storm water need that will come with the next rain event.