Comparison of Bathymetric Survey Methods

Comparison of Bathymetric Survey Methods
Link to this table

Pollutant Removal Assessment Strategy	Description	Relative accuracy	Relative cost
Grid Survey - Relative Depth	Measuring relative depths along an X,Y grid of points or at monitored GPS locations. This method relies on determining the water surface elevation on the day of survey, either through a known benchmark or known pond outlet elevation.	Low	Low
Grid Survey - Total Station (TS), Real Time Kinematic (RTK) Survey	Similar to "relative depth" method, but utilizes TS or RTK survey to measure pond depths directly	Medium/high1	Medium/high1
Continuous survey - sonar	Continuous monitoring of pond depth using sonar. Many "fish finder" style sonar devices can be used for this application. Collected data can be sent to cloud processing companies to develop bathymetric volumes directly form collected data	Medium/high2	High

¹Accuracy dependent on number of points collected, and cost dependent on if MS4 owns and has trained staff to operate TS/RTK survey equipment.
²Accuracy dependent on pond depth and vegetation (lower accuracy if less than 2 feet deep and/or highly vegetated