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Discharge estimation and rating curve derivation, using satellite geometry data and isovel contours at Karun River, Iran

  • Research Article - Hydrology
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Abstract

Determining discharge and stage–discharge curves in fluvial environments without hydrometric gauges is a critical challenge in hydrologic studies and river hydraulics. This issue will be more evident in managing flood hazards in the rivers of arid areas without flow measurement gauges, where the reaction time is the critical factor. Researchers and designers have always tried to access simpler, cheaper methods to estimate discharge and rating curves. This research aims to facilitate the determination of the discharge and stage–discharge relationship by applying remote sensing techniques and the concept of isovel contours. For this purpose, the geometry of the river cross section is determined using remotely sensed data from the images of the Sentinel-1 and two satellites, and then discharge passed through the cross section is estimated by the single point velocity measurement method. The observed data were collected from the Mollasani station in Karun River, Iran, to confirm this method. The obtained discharges and stage–discharge relationship curves are used to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed methodology. Statistical analyses showed that the mean value of the normalized percentage error and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) calculated based on the difference between the estimated and observed discharges are limited to 6.3 and 8.36%, respectively. Also, the stage–discharge curves in these studies were estimated with a maximum MAPE of 9.5%, which is considered a good initial approximation considering the minimum required data.

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Availability of data and materials

Data and material are available upon request to the corresponding author.

Abbreviations

A :

Cross-sectional area of flow

B :

Open-channel width

c, c 1 , c 2, c 2 :

Proportionality constant

C :

Normalized velocity

du :

Differential velocity deviation between an element of the boundary and an arbitrary point in the flow field

f ():

A function of

H :

Water depth along y-axis at a cross section

k s :

Equivalent Nikuradse sand roughness

m :

Constant; exponent of power formula

P :

Wetted perimeter

Q :

Discharge

Q 0 :

Observed discharge

Q e :

Estimated discharge

r :

Position vector of arbitrary point in field

r :

Subscripts, represents the referenced value

e :

Subscripts, represents the estimated value

u m :

Measured velocity component in the streamwise direction

u :

Local velocity

U :

Average cross-sectional velocity

u ∗ :

Boundary shear velocity

du SPM :

Effect of ds from the wetted perimeter on the velocity at an arbitrary point with the coordinates of \((y,z)\)

n :

Manning roughness equivalent

y :

Normal distance from the wall (left bank)

\(\theta\) :

Angle between the positional vector r and the boundary element vector ds

T max :

Maximum width of the water surface

\(\tau_{0}\) :

Boundary shear stress

u SPM :

Local point velocity

\((y,z)\) :

An arbitrary position in the channel section

σ ° :

Output radar backscatter bands

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, 91775-1111, Iran

    Hossein Farnoush & Mahmoud F. Maghrebi

Authors
  1. Hossein Farnoush
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  2. Mahmoud F. Maghrebi
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Correspondence to Mahmoud F. Maghrebi.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Edited by Dr. Michael Nones (CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF).

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Farnoush, H., Maghrebi, M.F. Discharge estimation and rating curve derivation, using satellite geometry data and isovel contours at Karun River, Iran. Acta Geophys. 71, 2825–2838 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-022-00965-7

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