Improving Discharge Measurement in Unmeasured Zones of ADCPs

The Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) is one of the most commonly used instruments for measuring river discharge by utilizing the Doppler effect of acoustic waves. However, its reliance on a single transducer introduces certain limitations. During the transition between transmission and reception of the acoustic signal, the returning signal cannot be captured, resulting in an inability to measure discharge near the sensor.

Additionally, side-lobe interference generated by acoustic waves reflects off the riverbed and contaminates measurements near the bottom. To mitigate this, discharge data within 5% of the water depth from the bottom are typically excluded from results. Furthermore, in shallow areas where the unmeasured regions near the sensor and near the bottom overlap, discharge cannot be accurately measured.

To address these gaps, discharge in the unmeasured regions of ADCP measurements is typically extrapolated using data from the measured sections or calculated using empirical equations. In this study, a method to improve the measurement accuracy in the unmeasured regions of the ADCP was developed and evaluated.

 

Acknowledgements 

This work was supported by Korea Environment Industry & Technology Institute(KEITI) through Research and development on the technology for securing the water resouces stability in response to future change Program, funded by Korea Ministry of Environment(MOE)(RS-2024-00336020)