Shoreline Surveys

The District’s Shoreline Monitoring Program

The PRWD Managers are committed to obtaining sufficient data to characterize water quality and to ascertain those factors which influence water quality. Such information is used by Managers to make management choices about protecting or improving water quality, and to evaluate the outcomes of these choices.   

One component of the District’s monitoring program is to ascertain shoreline conditions around district lakes. Shoreline conditions are known to be influential in lake water quality, and are taken into account in preparing lake management plans. Information from shoreline surveys is also used in connection with implementing the District’s water management rules concerning shore impact zone developments.    

The District’s Shoreline Survey approach has evolved since 1997 when data were obtained for a dozen of the main District lakes. Several more lakes were surveyed in 1998, and re-surveys of some took place in 2001 and 2003. In 2004 photography of shoreline properties became part of the survey protocol, and since 2006 the photos have been hyperlinked to taxpayer ID numbers.      

The data obtained by these surveys are not strictly comparable over time. In the earlier surveys, observers were asked to make judgments about certain shoreline conditions – amount of land alteration, and lake-bottom disturbance as examples; while this approach produced valid comparative results in a single survey year, changes in personnel in subsequent years reduced the validity of year-to-year comparisons. Later the emphasis was placed on more objective measures, the presence or absence of rip-rap or docks, and other structures in the shore impact zone. 
 

A summary of the results of the 2006-2008 Shoreline Surveys follows.

Shore Survey Summary Data

                                         Dick Hecock

September 18, 2008