INSTRUMENTATION TO MEASURE VELOCITY AND SEDIMENT DISCHARGE USING TURBIDITY AND BEND SENSORS TO OBTAIN REAL TIME DATA AT THE WATERSHED SCALE.

R. Stewart1, J.F. Fox1, C. Harnett2, W. Ford1, A. Thompson1, 1Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Kentucky and 2Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Univ. of Louisville

SUMMARYSediment in streams is one of the major causes of impaired streams in the US and threatens the ecology of the watershed. The objective of this study is to develop a sensor network so that real time monitoring system for velocity and sediment discharge of any watershed can be implemented quickly and in remote locations..

PRESENT DEVELOPMENTFull implementation of the project is ongoing at this time and includes collaboration between Civil Engineers at UK and Electrical Engineers at U of L. Results are expected to provide accurate data of suspended sediment load derived from the South Elkhorn Watershed so that this data can be used to calibrate hydrologic and suspended sediment transport models. The sediment monitoring network will be set up at a location where sediment fingerprinting is occurring which will provide insight into the source of the sediment. By the end of the research period new techniques will have been developed so that instrumentation can be quickly set up in any watershed to capture in real time the hydrologic and sediment flux.

Picture Courtesy of EPA

SENSOR LOCATIONS AND FRAMEWORK..

SALAMANDERS

A waterproofed Bend Sensor installed in a PVC pipe union and interfaced with a voltage divider and analog-to-digital

converter chip.

LAB AND FIELD COMMUNICATION FLOWCHART

Partial Funding by the National Science Foundation-EPSCoR Program, Award 0918856.

South Elkhorn Watershed

Velocity Bend Sensor calibration is performed using an acoustic Doppler velocimeter

Turbidity Sensor calibration is performed using ISCO pump samplers and off-the-shelf real-time turbidity sensors.