Measuring Water Velocity and Streamflow in Open-water and Under Ice

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Measuring Water Velocity and Streamflow in
Open-water and Under Ice

• John Fulton and Steve Robinson
• U.S. Geological Survey
• Joe Ostrowski
• Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center
• National Weather Service
• Dapei Wang
• Water Survey of Canada

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Overview

• Evolution of Methods
• Water Velocity
• Streamflow
• Open-water and Ice-cover Projects
• Radar
• Acoustics
• The Real Story Behind Your Ice Record

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Evolution of Methods
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Evolution of Methods

• Current-meter methods

umax
Chapra (1997)
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Evolution of Methods
Darcy, in Proc. Roy. Soc., A (1909)

• Secondary and vertical flow components develop
  due to side-wall effects
• umax may occur below the water surface

Therefore, we need an alternative velocity
distribution equation
USGS (1904)
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Evolution of Methods

• Information Entropy (probability-based solution
  for characterizing the velocity distribution)

y-axis contains umax
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Evolution of Methods
A significant amount of information can be
derived from the maximum velocity

• uavg f (M) umax
• Q uavg A
• ? (M) is a measure of a streams happy place
  and does not change with
• flow
• velocity
• stage
• channel geometry
• bed form and material
• slope
• alignment

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NWS Proof-of-Concept Study
Radar guns

• Actual Stream Flow

Rating Curve
Current-meter method
ADCPs
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NWS Proof-of-Concept StudyOpen-water

• Steps
• y-axis
• f(M)
• umax or uD
• area
• Q uavg A (? umax ) A

Yen (1998)
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NWS Proof-of-Concept StudyOpen-water

• Steps
• y-axis
• f(M)
• umax or uD
• area
• Q uavg A (? umax ) A

Yen (1998)
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NWS Proof-of-Concept StudyOpen-water

• Steps
• y-axis
• f(M)
• umax or uD
• area
• Q uavg A (? umax ) A

Chiu and others (2001)
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NWS Proof-of-Concept StudyOpen-water

• Steps
• y-axis
• f(M)
• umax or uD
• area
• Q uavg A (? umax ) A

Yen (1998)
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NWS Proof-of-Concept StudyOpen-water

• Steps
• y-axis
• f(M)
• umax or uD
• area
• Q uavg A (? umax ) A

Yen (1998)
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NWS Proof-of-Concept StudyOpen-water
Open-waterChartiers Creek at Carnegie,
PaDrainage area 257 mi2Unregulated system
usurf velocity ADV 2.6 fps usurf velocity
radar 2.5 - 2.6 fps
Discharge methods Current-meter 210 cfs Rating
curve 189 cfs Entropy regress 193 cfs Entropy
surf vel 201 cfs s.d. 9 cfs f 0.58
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NWS Proof-of-Concept StudyOpen-water
usurf velocity ADV 2.4 fps usurf velocity
radar 2.0 - 2.3 fps
Susquehanna River at Bloomsburg, PaDrainage area
10,560 mi2Regulated system

• Discharge methods
• Current-meter 10,800 cfs
• ADCP 10,130 cfs
• Rating curve 10,550 cfs
• Entropy regress 10,330 cfs
• Entropy surf vel 9,950 cfs
• s.d. 340 cfs
• f 0.78

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NWS Proof-of-Concept StudyOpen-water
Open-waterBasin DAs 260 to 24,100
mi2Regulated and non-regulated systems
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NWS Proof-of-Concept StudyIce-cover

• Steps
• y-axis and f(M) established during open water
• umax along y-axis
• area
• Q uavg A (? umax ) A

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NWS Proof-of-Concept StudyIce-cover

• Red River of the North at Grand Forks, ND (1984
  to 2002)
• Open water measurements
• Ice measurements were collected by the North
  Dakota District on
• 01/20/04
• 02/05/04
• 03/02/04
• f .596 computed for open-water used to
  calculate stream flow under ice cover

STA 84 Qact 463 cfs Qobs 476 cfs diff 3
Nolan, K.M. and Jacobson, Jake, Discharge
measurements under ice cover, USGS WRIR 00-4257
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NWS Proof-of-Concept Study

• Future Efforts
• Partnering with the
• NWS
• SRBC
• HIF
• University of Washington
• USGS, North Dakota District
• Water Survey of Canada
• Wind and precipitation influences
• Flashy conditions
• Ice conditions
• Real-time areas

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Water Survey of Canada

• Project Scope
• Equipment
• SonTek Argonaut-SW SL
• Open-channel flow and flow under ice
• Flow velocity distribution (FVD) model

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Water Survey of Canada

• Vertical velocity distribution in open water
• universal-velocity-distribution law
• bed roughness parameter y0b to reflect effects of
  channel bed roughness
• hydraulic parameter g to reflect effects of
  hydraulic gradient

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Water Survey of Canada

• Vertical velocity distribution under ice cover
• ice roughness parameter y0i
• for effects of bottom surface
• of ice cover
• approximated by a two-layer
• scheme
• lower layer - solely affected
• by bed roughness
• upper layer - solely affected
• by ice roughness

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Water Survey of Canada

• ADVM SonTek Argonaut-SW _at_ Chateauguay River
• Chateauguay River, QC, Canada
• two SW installations, 400 m apart
• SW data Dec. 03 May 04
• Open flows Flow under ice cover
• upstream site
• flow depth 2-5 m
• channel width 85 m
• ice cover 12/11/03 to 3/25/04 2130
• downstream site
• flow depth 2-4 m
• channel width 40 m
• ice cover 1/9/04 945 to 3/4 1200

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Water Survey of Canada