Unmanned remote control boats equipped with Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) have transformed the effectiveness and efficiency of river discharge measurements at the Environment Agency in England, and many other monitoring authorities around the world. The robotic boats have brought significant benefits to the speed and safety of flow gaugings, as well as allowing measurements to be made in a greater range of conditions, and in previously inaccessible locations. The quality of results can be dramatically improved as well, since measurements can be made at the optimum location, rather than simply the location that can most easily be accessed.
Equipping the ADCPs with high-precision Differentially-Corrected and Real Time Kinematic GPS systems (D-GPS and RTK GPS) has further increased the benefits of the boats. With every data point accurately geo-referenced, reach-scale mapping of bathymetry, flow and bed dynamics is possible.
Now, an EU Horizon 2020 funded project known as ‘INTCATCH’ is further expanding the capabilities of the robotic boats by adding innovative water quality and sediment monitoring capabilities. This to provide a multi-parameter river and lake monitoring and mapping solution that will greatly improve understanding of these water environments as holistic systems. These tools will help identify the source, transport processes, mass balance and fate of pollutants entering the water body, enabling a paradigm shift in water management decision making.
Further enhancements to the robotic boats, with the integration of features such as autonomous control, first person view and pumped water sampling are further expanding their capabilities.
This short course combines a 1-hour presented session on the potential of the boats and the associated monitoring, data dissemination and decision support tools with a practical demonstration on the nearby Neue Donau waterway. EGU attendees will be able to take control of the boats and participate in the collection of data on the river.