Assessment of Bathymetry and Sediment Accumulation of Walker Lake, PA with Multiple Frequency GPR Antennas

Silting within all man-made reservoirs, can be a major problem. Exploring bathymetry with electromagnetic prospection tools is one way to identify the magnitude of sediment accumulation in lakes and reservoirs. In this study, the bathymetry and sediment accumulation of Walker Lake, PA was explored via multi-frequency ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys. Walker Lake is located on the North Branch Middle Creek, which is a tributary to Middle Creek within the Susquehanna River basin. The technique developed in this study included two antennas positioned on a medium size inflatable boat towed by a 14' flat-bottom Jon Boat. Both 400 and 100 MHz antennas were deployed and sediment thickness and distribution throughout the lake were identified. A total of eighteen transects were taken along the entire length of the lake. A new method with multiple approaches including RADAN 7, GPR Viewer, SAS 9.1.3 and MATLAB was developed to generate three-Dimensional and contour surface of the pre-1971 Topography and bathymetry based on GPR reflection readings. As a result, depth, accumulation and rate of sedimentation in the lake were successfully measured. The lake was found to vary between 0.5 to 9 meters in depth. Sediment accumulation and distribution were calculated from the difference between the surveyed bathymetry and the 1971 pre-existent landscape topography. Sediment was found to accumulate thickest within the old channel of Middle Creek however, the bulk of the sediment volume lied outside this channel. Sediment deposition accumulates mainly upstream near the inlet to the lake and gradually decreases toward the dam inversely proportional to the depth of the lake.