MIRROR LAKE MONITORING: WATER LEVEL OBSERVATIONS AND GROUNDWATER-SURFACE WATER INTERACTIONS

Groundwater-surface water interactions have great importance for clean and sustainable water use. To understand these interactions in an artificially constructed lake on the campus of Ohio State University, monthly water level observations were made in Mirror Lake and ten monitoring wells surrounding the lake every month for a year. Many factors appear to contribute to changes in groundwater levels, including that Mirror Lake is losing water to the surrounding aquifer. The seasonal draining of the lake leads to a lowering of water levels in surrounding wells and changes in the rate of groundwater recharge.

It is important to collect and interpret this data to further understand seasonal changes in lake water losses and how they relate to lake management practices. With continued monitoring and the installation of additional wells, this long-term study can help guide more sustainable landscape design and water use on campus and also inform our understanding of the complexity of lake-aquifer interactions in managed, artificial lakes.