September 15, 2016 - Depth Map

Post date: Sep 16, 2016 3:19:10 AM

Many thanks to Dave Childs for collecting even more data in May & August of this year. He has collected approximately 400 miles of track data on the reservoir since May of 2015, with nearly a month of total time spent on the water. There's still more area to cover, but he is determined to finish the reservoir in its entirety. For my part, I have been figuring out the intricacies of the Reefmaster software, and attempting to dial in the quality of the depth map as much as possible. I will write another post with more details about the software, but I will save it for later. Now, without further ado, here is the 2016 Stillwater Reservoir custom depth map. You can download the KMZ file here to view in Google Earth. I'm waiting for a bug in Reefmaster to be fixed before I create an mbtile file version for mobile devices.

A few things to note about the depth data. Depth values are normalized to a water height of 1680 ft, the top of the pool height range. There are still sections that are either blank or incorrect, because enough data has not been collected in that region. The incorrect spots are few and far between, but do not use this layer for navigation! My routes have been adjusted where the depth data deems necessary, and they are still the safest navigational layer. As far as features go on the map, you may want to load the "River Bed" KMZ from a few update posts back, and overlay the layers. It identifies old ponds and lakes, creek beds, and the original river bed of the Beaver River. These features are now all submerged beneath the reservoir. The original river bed is quite clearly distinguishable in the area between the current dam and Wolf Creek. Read the other post for more information about how I created the river bed layer for the entire reservoir.

It's quite astonishing how exact the depth layer matches the satellite imagery. It's quite an amazing technology! I recommend turning on the 2011 historical imagery in Google Earth first and adjust the opacity of the depth layer back and forth to compare. Then load up the 2001 USGS Landsat 7 imagery, and then the 2001 Partridge composite underneath and repeat. It all matches quite well. I hope people enjoy the new depth map. Feel free to shoot me an email or comment and let me know what you think.

Click on the image for a larger version