Near Surface Geophysical Method Applicable for Water Sensitive Urban Design Projects

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Sonar has been applied for a Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) project. Detailed information on an urban freshwater lake in Copenhagen was obtained. A complete bathymetric survey of the lake as well as a detailed map of the thickness of limnic deposits on the lakebed was obtained. The GPR was significantly attenuated at water depth below approximately 3.3 m. However, the combination of the methods provided a full bathymetric survey. The combined results served as basis for planning of in-situ sediment samples, for calculating volume capacity of the lake as a potential rainwater storage basin as well as for quantifying the volume of limnic deposits. This will assist in the WSUD project to optimize the solutions and thereby reduce cost and time in future phases.