Water supply lakes are the primary source of water for many communities in northern and western Missouri. Therefore, accurate and up-to-date estimates of lake capacity are important for managing and predicting adequate water supply. Many of the water supply lakes in Missouri were previously surveyed by the U.S. Geological Survey in the early 2000s (Richards, 2013) and in 2013 (Huizinga, 2014); however, years of potential sedimentation may have resulted in reduced water storage capacity. Periodic bathymetric surveys are useful to update the area/capacity table and to determine changes in the bathymetric surface.
From March to May 2021, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and various cities in northeastern Missouri, completed bathymetric surveys of twelve (12) lakes using a marine-based mobile mapping unit, which consists of a multibeam echosounder (MBES) and an inertial navigation system (INS) mounted on a marine survey vessel. Bathymetric data were collected as the vessel traversed longitudinal transects to provide nearly complete coverage of the lake. The MBES was electronically tilted in some areas to improve data collection along the shoreline, in coves, and in areas that are shallower than about 2.0 meters deep (the practical limit of reasonable and safe data collection with the MBES). At some lakes, supplemental data were collected in shallow areas using an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) mounted on a remote-controlled vessel equipped with a differential global positioning system (DGPS). Bathymetric quality-assurance data also were collected at each lake to evaluate the vertical accuracy of the gridded bathymetric point data from the MBES.
As part of the survey at each of these lakes, one or more reference marks or temporary bench marks were established to provide a point of known location and elevation from which the water surface could be measured or another survey could be referenced at a later date. In addition, the elevation of a primary spillway or intake was surveyed, when present. These points were surveyed using a real-time kinematic (RTK) Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver connected to the Missouri Department of Transportation real-time network (RTN), which provided real-time survey-grade horizontal and vertical positioning, using field procedures as described in Rydlund and Densmore (2012) for a Level II real-time positioning survey.
The MBES data can be combined with light detection and ranging (lidar) data to prepare a bathymetric map and a surface area and capacity table for each lake. These data also can be used to compare the current bathymetric surface with any previous bathymetric surface.
Data from each of the surveys are provided in ESRI Shapefile format (ESRI, 2021). Each of the 12 lakes surveyed in 2021 has a child page containing the metadata and two zip files, one for the bathymetric data, and the other for the bathymetric quality-assurance data. The zip files follow the format of "####2021_bathy_pts.zip" or ####2021_QA_raw.zip", where "####" is the lake name. Each of these zip files contains a shapefile with an attribute table. Attribute/column labels of each table are described in the "Entity and attribute" section of the metadata file.
The various reference marks and additional points from all the lake surveys are provided in ESRI Shapefile format (ESRI, 2021) with an attribute table on the main landing page. Attribute/column labels of this table are described in the "Entity and attribute" section of the metadata file.
References Cited:
Environmental Systems Research Institute, 2021, ArcGIS: accessed May 20, 2021, at http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/
Huizinga, R.J., 2014, Bathymetric surveys and area/capacity tables of water-supply reservoirs for the city of Cameron, Missouri, July 2013: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2014–1005, 15 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20141005.
Richards, J.M., 2013, Bathymetric surveys of selected lakes in Missouri—2000–2008: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2013–1101, 9 p. with appendix, https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20131101.
Rydlund, P.H., Jr., and Densmore, B.K., 2012, Methods of practice and guidelines for using survey-grade global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) to establish vertical datum in the United States Geological Survey: U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods, book 11, chap. D1, 102 p. with appendixes, https://doi.org/10.3133/tm11D1.
