Selected methods for determining inconclusively identifiable shorelines of watercourses and lakes

The determination of a lake or natural watercourse shoreline is the subject of various administrative proceedings relating to, among others, the engineering of riverbeds, construction of hydro-technical facilities, remediation work, land division, or delimitation of parcels. The provisions of law, while laying out the rules for determining shorelines, do not explicitly specify the measurement method to follow. All the more so, as many shores of lakes and watercourses are among terrain details that are difficult to measure due to their varied accessibility, which depends on the terrain, vegetation, and water conditions. The purpose of this paper is to compare selected methods for determining the shoreline of watercourses and lakes in terms of their applicability under different environmental conditions under current legislation. This study comprises an assessment of the suitability of the applied methods of shoreline measurement under varying field conditions and their applicability in surveying work on shoreline determination. Surveys were conducted on 3 reservoirs and one watercourse using geodetic, photogrammetric, and remote sensing techniques, and the suitability of the various methods was evaluated with respect to the field conditions of the measurements.