Bathymetric Survey and Acoustic Sediment Profiling of Fort Hood, Texas Sediment Retention Ponds and Cowhouse Reach; Belton Lake

摘要

Erosion prevention and sediment retention are primary land management objectives for militaryland managers. Monitoring sediment retention structures and downstream water bodies forsediment deposition promotes effectively decision making and resource allocation. We utilizedacoustic profiling coupled with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to conduct detailedbathymetric surveys of Fort Hood training area sediment deposition within retention ponds anddownstream waterbodies. Our objectives were: 1) determine the remaining sediment storagecapacity of training area retention structures and 2) estimate exported sediment deposition withinthe Cowhouse Creek reach of Belton Lake. Bathymetric survey data were used to produceGeographic Information System (GIS) based spatial models for volumetric sediment analysis.We have determined the sediment retention capacity of Fort Hood's flood control structures havebetween 19% and 100% capacity remaining. The sediment distribution and thickness within a136 HA segment of Belton Lake contains an estimated 1.1 million cubic meters of sediment waseroded from Fort Hood into this area of the lake.