Future Concepts for River Discharge Measurements with Microwave Radar

River discharge has traditionally been estimated by combining in situ measurements of stage with in situ measurements of velocity and channel cross-section to derive stage-discharge rating curves. These measurements are time consuming and resource intensive, and only represent the state of the river at a single location. Thus, various researchers have studied non-contact stream gauging techniques using remote sensing instrumentation to estimate discharge. For example, airborne or space-borne radar has been used to measure surface velocity, and altimetry has been used to measure surface elevation. Other approaches have included coupling remote sensing measurements of water surface elevation and river channel width with a hydrodynamic model to estimate discharge. However, in all of these studies, prior knowledge of either the topology of the river bed or the channel roughness was assumed. This paper examines the potential of microwave radar to measure river discharge. Ultimately, our goal is to relate surface features to subsurface topology, thereby allowing non water-penetrating remote sensing measurements to estimate discharge. Our approach is to use interferometric Doppler radar to measure water elevation and surface velocity over a stretch of the river. If the channel topology is known, then discharge estimates can be computed from these measurements. To monitor changes in the channel, we draw on results from laboratory measurements and numerical simulations that demonstrate that variations in the mean water elevation along the river are related to the subsurface topography of the river bed. If the channel topology is not known, we propose to use a simple hydrodynamic model to estimate the depth. To do this, we compute the slope of the river using the water elevation measurements, and then estimate the pressure gradient in the river from the slope. In the case of steady, unstratified, open channel flow, the pressure gradient is balanced by the bottom stress, which is related to bed roughness. Recent work with infrared imagery of rivers suggests that, under certain conditions, surface roughness is related to bed roughness, and therefore bottom stress. Because microwave radar is sensitive to surface roughness, it may be possible to characterize bottom stress using microwave radar measurements. The combination of these estimates of river slope and bottom stress could then be used to derive the depth of the river, and therefore discharge.