Computational Approach to Improving the Efficiency of River Discharge Measurement
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 21, Issue 12
Abstract
In this work, a simple computational scheme with the pragmatic purpose of augmenting the efficiency of river discharge measurements is proposed. Observing the functional form of the velocity profile versus depth, applying polynomial regression for each vertical, and finally interpolating between the verticals, the authors develop a continuous approximation for the velocity across the entire vertical section, which turns out to be rather robust to the removal of individual measurement points. In particular, numerical data analysis shows that the number of measurements can be significantly reduced without a significant loss of accuracy of the discharge estimate. This procedure has been tested on the data obtained experimentally on the Exu, Capibaribe, and Ipojuca rivers, in the state of Pernambuco, northeast of Brazil, with different streamflow patterns exhibiting multiple local velocity maxima on and below the surface.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the financial support of Brazilian federal agencies CNPq (project CASADINHO-620113/2008-1) and CAPES (projects PROCAD-1396/2007 and PROCAD-2273/2008). B.S. acknowledges support of the CNPq agency through project PQ 306719/2012-6.
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 21 • Issue 12 • December 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 18, 2015
Accepted: Jul 11, 2016
Published online: Aug 19, 2016
Published in print: Dec 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Jan 19, 2017
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