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Salt Pond Bathymetry Studies
 Salt ponds, created from diked and filled
wetlands, populate the fringes of San Francisco Bay. Both wetlands and salt
ponds are critical habitat for many threatened species. The need for bathymetry
data within the ponds led to the creation of a shallow-water bathymetry system,
based on a double-hulled utility kayak. Preliminary measurements made in the
Alviso salt pond complex led other USGS colleagues to implement a modified
system in many ponds in South Bay.
The system was also used in the Napa salt pond complex, for measuring depths of
relict channels. The catastrophic widening of the Napa Pond 3 breach led to
major bathymetric changes within the adjacent tidal sloughs; we measured flows
as well as bathymetry in the scour hole outside the breach. This was performed
with our normal ADCP/DGPS setup, as the kayak's trolling motor would have a
hard time standing up to the turbulent flows.
Publications
Swanson, K., Shellenbarger, G.G., Schoellhamer, D.H., Ganju, N.
K., Athearn, N., and Buchanan, P., 2003, Desalinization, erosion, and tidal
changes following the breaching of Napa salt pond 3. Proceedings of the 6th
biennial State-of-the-Estuary Conference, Oakland, California, October 21-23,
2003, p. 156.
Takekawa, J., Demers, S., Woo, I., Athearn, N., Ganju, N., Shellenbarger, G.,
Schoellhamer, D., and Perry, W.M., 2003, A bathymetry system for measuring
sediment accumulation in tidal marsh restoration projects. Proceedings of the
6th biennial State-of-the-Estuary Conference, Oakland, California, October
21-23, 2003, p. 157.
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