Developing a post-processing software for ADCP discharge measurement piloted by an international and inter-agency group: a unique, ambitious experience… and one that works!

Since 2015, 13 agencies from all around the world (9 different countries in Europe, North and South America and Oceania) have been working together in an International Hydrometry Group, a loosely organized group of experts in instruments and methods for measuring discharge in rivers that meets virtually once a month to discuss scientific and technical issues relating to river flow measurements.

A main objective of the group is to lead the development and funding of an open-source software package, QRevInt, for postprocessing ADCP discharge measurements. The agencies participate in funding the software developer (Dave Mueller, Genesis HydroTech) or contribute scientific inputs. They define the annual development workplan and its funding, and monitor progress during monthly monitoring meetings.

In this presentation, the latest version of QRevInt is detailed and the main advantages of the software are explained, including processing of measurements from ADCP of different manufacturers (TRDI and SonTek) with the same calculation assumptions, objectification of the computation of unmeasured flow area (top, bottom, edges, invalid cells or ensembles), calculation of uncertainty and advanced graph options.

The workplan of the group for 2022 is presented, including the ongoing developments of QRevInt, and the new project for a software dedicated to mid- or mean-section ADCP measurement, QRevIntMS.