On Saturday 31st August, 2024, Skyview’s Technical Director, Ian Tompkins, had the pleasure of attending the 7th IAHR/WMO/IAHS International Stream Gauging Course in Liverpool, UK.
This much-anticipated event was organised by the IAHR RiverFlow2024 conference, and was attended by a host of key experts across the hydrology sector.
Now in its 7th year, the three-day course consisted of lectures covering topics including field operations (gauging stations and discharge measurements), data management (rating curves, uncertainty estimations and data reviews) and field exercises to give the attendees some hands-on experience.
With delegates attending from 13 countries around the world, the course was designed for students, academics and professional hydrologists seeking to gain a clearer understanding of both classic and innovative hydrometry technologies. As Ian has previously attended many hydrometry courses in Austria alongside industry partners, Sommer, this was the next natural step to expand our knowledge-base of the ever-expanding international hydrometry industry.
Attendees included staff from the UK’s Environment Agency and SEPA, as well as international speakers and teachers, including:
- Alexandre Hauet - EDF and Grenoble Alpes University, France
- Marian Muste - IIHR, Iowa University, USA
- Dongsu Kim - Dankook University, Seoul, Korea
- Olly Baldwyn – Environment Agency, UK
- Jérôme Le Coz - INRAE, France
The varied schedule of events included:
- Day 1 - Lectures on hydrometric field measurements (gauging station, stream gauging, measurement quality and uncertainty);
- Day 2 - Hands-on exercises in the field, including a visit to a hydrometric station to take discharge measurements using conventional and innovative techniques, including ADCP, radar and image velocimetry, salt dilution, weir equation, and a low-cost stream-gauging ruler.
- Day 3 - Discharge computation and hydrometric data management: rating curves, hydrographs, data QA/QC, uncertainty analysis and publication.
Experts from the Environment Agency’s National Hydrometry Team were instrumental in selecting the most beneficial site for field training, with valuable contributions from Benoît Camenen of INRAE and commercial sponsors Sommer, Paratronic, Xylem, Fathom, Tenevia, Teledyne RDI, vortex-IO, and SEBA – many of whom also showcased their innovative products throughout the event.
The field day which took place on Sunday 1st September, 2024, was a particular highlight for attendees. Separated into six subgroups, the participants conducted discharge measurements using various methods at two different sites: Douglas River at Wanes Blades Bridge; and the River Tawd at Tawd Vale Adventure Centre.
At Douglas River, Vortex.io demonstrated their portable hydrometric station, ADCP measurements were taken using a Teledyne RDI StreamPro and a SonTek M9, as well as non-intrusive surface velocity measurements using an image-based method with Fudaa-LSPIV’s open-source software, Seba’s Discharge App. Ian was also pleased to demonstrate Sommer’s soon-to-be released HSR-10, a non-contact, mobile handheld surface radar (HSR) for spontaneous velocity measurements at streams and rivers.
At the River Tawd INRAE’s stream-gauging ruler was put into practice, and salt dilution was measured using the Fathom QiQuac and the Sommer TQ-S.
We thank the organisers for an insightful and engaging few days and very much look forward to seeing all the team again in 2025!
For more information on this event, please visit https://www.iahr.org/index/detail/1520
To see how Skyview Systems can help with your weather monitoring needs email systems@skyview.co.uk or speak to one of our expert engineers directly on +44 (0)1787 883 138.
