Beaver Lake was constructed in 1966 on the White River in the northwest corner of Arkansas for flood control, hydroelectric power, public water supply, and recreation. The surface area of Beaver Lake is about 27,900 acres and approximately 449 miles of shoreline are at the conservation pool level (1,120 feet above the North American Vertical Datum of 1988). Sedimentation in reservoirs can result in reduced water storage capacity and a reduction in usable aquatic habitat. Therefore, accurate and up-to-date estimates of reservoir water capacity are important for managing pool levels, power generation, water supply, recreation, and downstream aquatic habitat. Many of the lakes operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are periodically surveyed to monitor bathymetric changes that affect water capacity.
In October 2018, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, completed one such survey of Beaver Lake using a multibeam echosounder. The echosounder data was combined with light detection and ranging (lidar) data to prepare a bathymetric map and a surface area and capacity table. The gridded bathymetric point data (BeaverLake2018_bathy.zip) were computed on a 3.28-foot grid using the Combined Uncertainty and Bathymetry Estimator (CUBE) method, which is used as the source of points to create the bathymetric surface.
