Chapter 4: Stream and Lake-Reservoir Gaging
Chapter Objectives:
1. Examine principles and practices of stream discharge and lake-reservoir
measurements and monitoring.
2. Understand how these data form the basis for most surface water
hydrology work – they define the flux of water (i.e., streamflow) or
volume (lakes-reservoirs) that are the basis for other measurements
related to sediment and dissolved ion-nutrient-contaminant loading.
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Stream and Reservoir Gaging Measurements
Stream gaging systems typically require several measurements:
• Stage – height or elevational position of vertical water level
• Discharge – stream depth and velocity along a transect
• These measurements are plotted to generate stage-discharge
relationships for continuous monitoring.
Gaging from lakes and reservoirs requires:
• Stage – same methods as used for streams, elevation most often used
• Bathymetry – topographic map of submerged terrain
• These measurements can then be used to generate stage-volume
relationships.
Similar methodologies and technologies used for both systems.
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Stage Measurements
• Traditional or older mechanical measurements: stilling wells with
water-level recorders (graphical)
• Electronic: stage sensors and water-level recorders; include bubble
gages w/pressure transducers
• Non-contact: radar, acoustic, laser
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All figures from this methods
report unless otherwise noted.
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Physical – Stevens Type
Requires use of stilling well, float, and counter-weights, mechanically
records on graph paper.
[Link]
[Link] weekly-water-recorder
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Stilling Wells
• Stilling wells are typically cyclindrical
structures with plenty of open space
• Screened to allow water to enter, sometimes
intake pipes are used instead.
• Provide protection to physical floats and
other equipment (e.g., pressure transducers,
bubblers) and dampens perturbations caused
by turbulence and wind.
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Staff Gages – Non-Recording
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Air-Pressure Stage Monitoring
[Link]
basics
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Radar Sensors
• Example of this on Kalamazoo river
gaging station.
• Measures top of water, recorded
using data logger
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13
Stream Discharge Measurements
• Several approaches to
measuring stream
discharge – stream
discretized into depths
and corresponding
velocity.
• Velocity (current) meters
and acoustic-doppler are
most common
sensors/methods.
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All figures from this methods
report unless otherwise noted.
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Stream Velocity Profiles
Wading method with current sensor utilizes d60 as representative depth for velocity
measurement
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• The commonly-used
mid-point method
discretizes stream using
distances from bank
and depth.
• Velocity measurements
are then integrated for
the transect.
• As a general guideline,
at least 20
measurements are
needed, but not always
practical for small
streams.
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Acoustic-Doppler Current Profiler
20
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Stage-Discharge Curves
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Lake-Reservoir Bathymetry
• Bathymetry of a lake-reservoir is simply
the topography that is submerged
• Methods include weighted line (manual),
sonar (echo sounding), radar, and
satellite (LiDAR, radar)
• If sufficiently shallow, can use total
station, e.g., shallow streams and
wetlands.
• Stream cross-sections (manually
surveyed) commonly used for HEC-RAS
modeling.
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[Link] Hydrology
s/lakemich_cdrom/html/[Link]
Bathymetry and Volume
Bathymetry survey with sonar depth probe in September 2020: 12,984 spatial points
These data were then used to interpolate depths throughout the entire lake to compute lake
volume: essential for residence times and chloride mass in lake
25
Bathymetry and Volume
Software such as AutoCAD, GIS add-ons, and Surfer allow for computations of volume below
pre-defined planes.
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Parshall Flume
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Parshall Flume
• Developed by the USGS to measure the
flow of surface waters and irrigation
flows using a fixed hydraulic structure
• Flow is accelerated through contraction
of both the parallel sidewalls along with
a drop in the floor at the flume throat
to create a transition from subcritical to
supercritical flow conditions through the
throat of the flume.
• Depth of water at specified location
upstream of the flume throat can be
converted to a rate of flow.
[Link]
• A total of 22 standard sizes of Parshall -portable-parshall-
flume#:~:text=The%20USGS%20Portable%
flumes have been developed, covering 20Parshall%20flume,make%20it%20easier%
flow ranges from 0.005–3,280 cfs 20to%20install.
(0.1416–92,890 L/s)
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[Link]
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[Link]
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Portable Application of Parshall Flumes
[Link]
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[Link]
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Computation of Discharge
Empirical power-law equation where C and n vary according to flume size,
H can be monitored over longer time scales with transducer or other
measurement device.
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Water Level Monitoring
Stilling well (yellow arrow)
facilitates measurement of
flume water level for use
in flow computation.
Pressure transducer can
be deployed without flow
disruption.
[Link]
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[Link]
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Weirs
• Hydraulic structure that is a tiny (low-head) dam with a spill way
• The ‘spillway’ can have different geometries, which the weirs are
named after: v-notch, broad-crested, sharp-crested.
[Link] [Link]
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[Link] [Link]
/broad-crested-weir-calculations-spreadsheet/
[Link]
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Weir Geometry
[Link]
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[Link]
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Weir Discharge
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[Link]
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