What do you call the land area around a pond?

Bank

The land alongside or sloping down to a river or lake.

-Oxford Living Dictionary

From Farming Fresh Water Prawns: A Manual...

The banks of the pond (sometimes referred to as embankments or bunds)...

excerpt form cited book

Also:

In geography, the word bank generally refers to the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as banks in different fields of geography...The shoreline of ponds, swamps, estuaries, reservoirs, or lakes are also of interest in limnology and are sometimes referred to as banks.

Wikipedia


I assume you are talking about a pond which is a natural part of the landscape - not an artificial pond e.g. garden pond.

In Britain I would think the most likely used name for the land area adjacent to such a natural pond to be the bank - the same as a river bank.

I'm very familiar with the Norfolk Broads. They are artificial lakes, which were created from peat-diggings in the medieval period, (admittedly a bit larger than anything which in Britain might be called a pond). Connected by a network of rivers, they are today an important holiday area for boating, sailing, wildlife study etc.

I would refer to the edge of one of the "broads" as the bank - though the banks are substantially inaccessible due to reed growth. However where the reeds are cleared, mooring staithes have been created. People talk about mooring their boat at the river bank.


If you want to get technical, the land area around the pond is the littoral (noun) or the littoral (adjective) zone.

Whereas dictionaries define littoral in terms of a lake or sea:

(Collins):

adjective
1. of or relating to the shore of a sea, lake, or ocean
2. biology
inhabiting the shore of a sea or lake or the shallow waters near the shore
littoral fauna

noun
3. a coastal or shore region

(Merriam-Webster):

littoral adjective (Entry 1 of 2)
: of, relating to, or situated or growing on or near a shore especially of the sea
// littoral waters

littoral noun (Entry 2 of 2)
: a coastal region
especially : the shore zone between high tide and low tide points

However, the usage of littoral in referring to ponds seems to be standard in the pond and bio-aquatic fields. (emphasis mine in examples below)

From the University of California Museum of Paleontology:

The topmost zone near the shore of a lake or pond is the littoral zone. This zone is the warmest since it is shallow and can absorb more of the Sun's heat. It sustains a fairly diverse community, which can include several species of algae (like diatoms), rooted and floating aquatic plants, grazing snails, clams, insects, crustaceans, fishes, and amphibians. In the case of the insects, such as dragonflies and midges, only the egg and larvae stages are found in this zone. The vegetation and animals living in the littoral zone are food for other creatures such as turtles, snakes, and ducks.

From ponds.org:

Littoral zones are areas that are created on the edge of ponds that are to serve as a growth area for aquatic plants.

From Kasco Marine, a manufacturer of fountains, aerators, and other pond accessories:

The Littoral Zone is the shore area of the lake or pond. The littoral zone consists of the area from the dry land sloping to the open water and can be very narrow or very wide. Typically oligotrophic or young ponds have narrow littoral zones due to their steep sides and eutrophic or old ponds have wide littoral zones due to their gently sloping shoreline and sides. The littoral zone is shallow and gets a lot of nutrients from runoff and non-point source pollution. Therefore, it typically has an abundance of aquatic plant and algae growth. Some other common inhabitants of the littoral zone are cattails, reeds, crawfish, snails, insects, zooplankton, and small fish.


I live adjacent to a pond in New England (specifically, Spy Pond in Arlington, MA). People around here commonly call the area around it the shore, and the border of the water specifically as the shoreline.

For instance, this article on a town-related website:

Public input sought for Spy Pond shore protection

The Arlington Conservation Commission and its partners wish to mitigate erosion and preserve the public shoreline to improve the ecological structure and function of Spy Pond.