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Waterline Surveys <br />One hindrance to using sonar to map the channel bottom involved the equipment's <br />minimum depth limitation. In order for the sonar to get a reading off the bottom of the <br />channel, the transducer had to have at least half a meter of water underneath it. The <br />transducer was located approximately 15cm underwater to allow for the pitch and roll of <br />the boat and to minimize air entrainment under the transducer head. Thus, the minimum <br />depth to gather sonar data was 75 cm. <br />In areas that were too shallow for data collection by the boat-mounted GPS/sonar <br />method, additional topographic data was collected using RTK GPS in what we referred to <br />as the "walking method". In this method, the Javad RTK GPS was mounted on a range <br />pole and individual RTK GPS positions were recorded with a Psion data collector <br />running Field Face software. After 2001, a TDS Ranger was used for collecting <br />individual survey points. <br />Reference Sites <br />Data collected in the 15-mile reach of the Colorado River were geographically <br />referenced to the Mesa County GPS Survey System (www.co.mesa.co.us, GIS section). <br />Aerial photography of the 15-Mile Reach was purchased from Mesa County to aid in <br />identification of landmarks and waterline boundaries. <br />The web page of the Mesa County Dept. of Public Works Engineering <br />Division/Survey Section showed the locations of the county markers. Using the latitude <br />and longitude of the brass marker at the intersection of 31 and C Road as a known <br />reference point, we placed secondary rebar survey pins at two. places along the 15-Mile <br />Reach. One pin was placed near river mile 175. This pin was used as the reference point <br />for the entire Corn Lake survey. The other pin, located on a bluff just upstream of the 32 <br />Road Bridge on property owned by the Meso County Highway Department, was used for <br />the Clifton surveys. <br />On the Yampa and Dolores, initial surveys markers were placed using only <br />uncorrected GPS coordinates. Base pins located by the GPS were then used for all <br />subsequent surveys at each of the sites. <br />Corn Lake, Colorado River <br />The Corn Lake site was mapped during aseven-day period beginning June 27th <br />and ending July 7`h. Flows were generally between 8,000 and 10,000 cfs. About 38,880 <br />usable bathymetric survey points were collected along a 4.0-km reach. Water edge shots <br />were obtained in October 1999 and July and August, 2000 using the walking method. <br />27 <br />