High-resolution hydrometric monitoring of rivers is important because climate change severely affects frequency and magnitude of extreme events and flood/drought risk profiles are changing fast. However, hydrometric monitoring data is scarce and lacks spatial resolution and coverage, particularly in remote and hard-to-reach rivers in alpine, Arctic and tropical regions. Advanced in-situ monitoring technologies have to be combined with satellite earth observation (EO) to obtain accurate, reliable, long-time and spatio-temporally resolved information for effective decision support, risk assessment, investment analysis in the context of climate change adaptation, and operational forecasting, surveillance, and management.
Traditional in-situ hydrometric monitoring of rivers is station-based. Water surface elevation, flow velocity, bed geometry and river discharge are measured using sensors that are installed in-situ, either in direct contact or in close proximity to the flow. In-situ station-based monitoring infrastructure is vulnerable and often fails during extreme flooding events, when the value of information is very high. Station-based monitoring networks lack spatial resolution and have been declining in many regions, particularly in remote and hard-to-reach areas. Data accessibility is increasingly restricted because of growing conflicts between countries over water resources allocation.
This session solicits contributions describing new water observing systems providing key hydrometric variables (e.g. bathymetry, velocity, discharge, water surface elevation, temperature, water quality parameters) at high spatial resolution and coverage, using ground-based, satellite, and/or unoccupied arial system (UAS) platforms. Focus is on the development of innovative monitoring technologies, the combination of in-situ, airborne, and satellite EO datasets, and data use for river modeling and decision support.