A custom-designed 24 foot pontoon boat is used for field surveying and mapping on the lakes. For shallow and brushy areas, a smaller 12 foot skiff is used. In order to assess the actual amount of sediment n the lakes, geophysical subbottom profiling equipment and techniques have been developed by the researchers. The custom-designed system is mounted on the boat and is used to develop detailed profiles of the lake bottoms. This includes the use of high-frequency profiling equipment capable of penetrating the layers of sediment down to the original lake bottom. The data are continuously recorded by computer equipment with a Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) keeping track of the position for each section.
Once the data are analyzed, it is used to construct detailed maps of bottom topography. The data shows the spatial distribution od sediments along with layer thickness and sediment channelization.