Assessment of an Ultrasonic Water Stage Monitoring Sensor Operating in an Urban Stream

Sensors

Emmanouil Nikiforakis¹  Elias Dimitriou²  Georgios Poulis²  Yiannis Panagopoulos²  Anastasios Papadopoulos² 

[1] EXM P.C. (Ex Machina), Chalkidikis 89, 11855 Athens, Greece;Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters, 19013 Anavissos Attikis, Greece;

关键词: non-contact sensors;    pressure transducer;    rivers monitoring;    statistical analysis;    ultrasonic;    water stage;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s21144689

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The monitoring of the water stage in streams and rivers is essential for the sustainable management of water resources, particularly for the estimation of river discharges, the protection against floods and the design of hydraulic works. The Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) has developed and operates automatic stations in rivers of Greece, which, apart from their monitoring role, offer opportunities for testing new monitoring equipment. This paper compares the performance of a new ultrasonic sensor, a non-contact water stage monitoring instrument, against a pressure transducer, both installed at the same location in an urban stream of the metropolitan area of Athens. The statistical and graph analysis of the almost one-year concurrent measurements from the two sensors revealed that stage differences never exceeded 7%, while the ultrasonic measurements were most of the time higher than the respective pressure transducer ones during the low flow conditions of the dry period and lower during the wet period of the year, when high flow events occurred. It is also remarkable that diurnal air temperature variations under stable hydrologic conditions had an impact on the measured stage from the ultrasonic sensor, which varied its stage measurements within a small but non-negligible range, while the pressure transducer did not practically fluctuate. Despite a slightly increased sensitivity of the ultrasonic sensor to meteorological conditions, the paper concludes that non-contact sensors for the monitoring of the water stage in rivers can be useful, especially where danger for possible damage of submersible instruments is increased.

【 授权许可】

Unknown