Some Considerations for Managing Urban Lakes

Proceedings of the 1991 Georgia Water Resources Conference, March 19-20, 1991, Athens, Georgia.Water quality in a lake, or any other water body, is determined largely by the watershed which drains into it the effects of soil characteristics, land use patterns, and topography form a continuous process which is driven by each rainfall event. Soil erosion is an on-going process which over time will gradually transform a lake into shallow marsh. The rate of a lake's aging process through sedimentation is a direct function of the amount of soil loss from the watershed. Urban development in a lake's watershed accelerates the aging process which reduces the useable life of the lake. The lake functionally acts as a settling basin for the watershed. In an urban setting lakes provide vital roles as stormwater retention areas. However, despite the on-going sedimentation from a developing watershed, many urban lakes are used for recreation and aesthetic purposes. Many subdivisions, office parks, apartments, and private residences will typically use a lake as an amenity to the overall project. This conflict of use - retention vs.. recreation - creates a management challenge for the lake owners and users. With the recent development (post 1970) around the Atlanta area, many lakes and ponds have been impacted by watershed changes and disturbances. The objectives of this paper are: (1) to examine two problem areas common to many small impoundments in the piedmont region of Georgia: low biological productivity and sedimentation; and (2) to present practical management strategies and available in-lake management technologies for developing effective plans for addressing these problems.Sponsored by U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the University of Georgia, Georgia State University, and Georgia Institute of Technology.This book was published by the Institute of Natural Resources, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 with partial funding provided by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, through the Georgia Water Research Institute as authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1984 (P.L. 98242). The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of The University of Georgia or the U.S. Geological Survey or the conference sponsors