Get Lake Depth Estimates

Retrieves or estimates lake depth for wave calculations. Uses user-provided depth if available, otherwise estimates from lake surface area using empirical relationships.

Usage

get_lake_depth(
  lake_polygon,
  site_coords = NULL,
  user_depth = NULL,
  method = "auto"
)

Arguments

lake_polygon

sf polygon of the lake

site_coords

Coordinates of the sample site (optional, for future bathymetry grid support)

user_depth

User-provided depth in meters (highest priority)

method

Method for depth estimation: "auto" or "empirical"

Value

A list with elements:

depth_mean

Estimated mean depth in meters

depth_max

Estimated maximum depth in meters (if available)

source

Source of the estimate ("user" or "empirical")

confidence

Confidence level ("high", "medium", "low")

Details

Depth estimation methods:

1. User-provided: Direct input, highest confidence

2. Empirical: Estimated from lake surface area using published relationships

The empirical method uses the relationship from Cael et al. (2017): mean_depth ~ 10.3 * area_km2^0.25

References

Messager, M.L., Lehner, B., Grill, G., Nedeva, I., Schmitt, O. (2016): Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach. Nature Communications, 7: 13603.

Cael, B.B., Heathcote, A.J., Seekell, D.A. (2017): The volume and mean depth of Earth's lakes. Geophysical Research Letters, 44: 209-218.

Examples

data(example_lake)

# With user-provided depth
depth <- get_lake_depth(example_lake, user_depth = 8.5)

# Estimate from lake area
depth <- get_lake_depth(example_lake)
#>   Lake depth estimated from area (3.14 km2): mean ~ 13.7m, max ~ 34.3m