City of Minnetonka Watershed Analysis

Abstract

This project was completed as part of the 2012-2013 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Minnetonka. To identify strategies for improving water quality in Minnetonka lakes, the City needed more reliable information about the sources and amounts of potential biological and chloride contamination in the watersheds, as well as the avenues of transit for these contaminants from upland areas to the city's water bodies. Minnetonka project lead and water resources engineer Liz Stout worked with a team of students in 5295 to design a methodology for determining biomass loads within an identifiable tree canopy, and create a geodatabase of transit and flow properties within Minnetonka’s infrastructure. The students' final report and presentation are available.