The Sylvan Lake watershed and its supply of groundwater are dependent on a fine balance between incoming and outgoing water. The net amount is absorbed and stored underground in the soil, porous and permeable geological glacial deposits, and local aquifers and becomes available for domestic and agricultural use. The following ERCB/AGS maps included in this post show how the natural system and its regional water balance works.
The Sylvan Lake watershed and the lake occupy a small part of that area and are located about 20 km west of Red Deer. See the lake aligned in a NW direction in this series of maps. Zoom in if you are viewing the images on a phone. Check the legends for the colour-coded values.








All maps are from the 2011 report Edmonton-Calgary Corridor Groundwater Atlas by this team of authors:
Barker, A.A., Riddell, J.T.F., Slattery, S.R., Andriashek, L.D., Moktan, H., Wallace, S., Lyster, S., Jean, G. Huff, G.F., Stewart, S.A. and Lemay, T.G., (2011): Edmonton–Calgary Corridor groundwater atlas; Energy Resources Conservation Board, ERCB/AGS Information Series 140, 90 p.
View this photo album for access to expandable maps.
To supplement the modern maps reproduced above, the hydrogeological work of Gabert and others on the Sylvan Lake watershed is extracted from the AXYS 2005 report Appendix B and available for previewing in an online folder.