Flow measurement in watercourses
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Flow measurements for any type of watercourse are performed on demand with three different instruments:
- Conductivity measurement, for streams of torrential character using the Sommer Tracer System instrument. The presence of large pools of water and reduced mixing from the salt intake point to the measurement point can affect the success of the measurement.
- For wadeable rivers there is the possibility of measuring the flow rate using an electromagnetic current meter. The cross section and different velocities are measured so that the flow rate can be calculated. The instrument used is OTT MF-Pro.
- For non-wadeable rivers, the flow rate is measured with an acoustic velocity profiler (ADCP - Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler). The instrument used is the SonTek RS5 and allows great accuracy and flexibility for any type of watercourse.