The Elevation to Area Relationship of Lake Behnke

by Kaitlin Deutsch

Submitted : Spring 2012

The objective of this project was to determine the area-to-depth relationship in Lake Behnke, which acts as the principal stormwater drainage basin for the University of South Florida campus in Tampa, Florida. Data previously collected in a Stormwater Management Study illustrated a perfectly linear correlation; however, that study was conducted in 1998, and my project served to “update” the data in order to verify that the relationship was still accurate.

With a bathymetric map of Lake Behnke that displayed several contour lines indicating depth, the area inside each closed curve was determined using an approximation of the area given by the contour integral. This is done by partitioning the closed curve into many subintervals; a method similar to that of the Riemann’s Sums. The resulting relationship between area and elevation from these approximations was determined not to be linear. Additionally, the areas at each elevation were much smaller than those given in the 1998 study, and Lake Behnke sat at a significantly lower elevation. Leaving room for technical error, it was concluded that the results from the Stormwater Management Study were most likely out of date, and that Lake Behnke should be re-assessed in order establish important relationships other than area-to-elevation that may have changed over the past 14 years.

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