Comparison of the longitudinal and lateral profiles of watercourses using sonar-based methods (ADCP) and hydrological analogy

Abstract

In many cases, a flood wave has a pronounced transforming effect on the channel, and the knowledge of the watercourse longitudinal and lateral profiles is of great importance. To obtain data meeting these requirements with adequate accuracy, we alternated the conventional geodesic methods with sonar-based approaches – ADCP – and with results from the CroSolver software, constructed for obtaining bathymetric information. We compare results achieved from two approaches for preparing geometric data for hydrodynamic models. The respective approaches are considered as possible replacements for the costly conventional geodesic methods. The proposed methods use either data available from the continual monitoring of surface water courses (i.e., discharge measurements), which can capture precisely the lateral channel profile within the entire longitudinal profile, or a robust sonar-based system. Results obtained from the conducted studies show that our statement about a possibility to synthesize the ALS data with data from hydrological measurements or ADCP sonar in preparing watercourse computational geometry, is valid. A very good agreement was achieved between lateral profiles (determined inundation areas) prepared by using the CroSolver software or the ADCP sonar with lateral profiles established by geodesic surveying.