Discharge measurements of snowmelt flood by space-time image velocimetry during the night using far-infrared camera

Abstract

The space time image velocimetry (STIV) technique is presented and shown to be a useful tool for extracting river flow information non-intrusively simply by taking surface video images. This technique is applied to measure surface velocity distributions on the Uono River on Honshu Island, Japan. At the site, various measurement methods such as a radio-wave velocity meter, an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) or imaging techniques were implemented. The performance of STIV was examined in various aspects such as a night measurement using a far-infrared-ray (FIR) camera and a comparison to ADCP data for checking measurement accuracy. All the results showed that STIV is capable of providing reliable data for surface velocity and water discharge that agree fairly well with ADCP data. In particular, it was demonstrated that measurements during the night can be conducted without any difficulty using an FIR camera and the STIV technique. In particular, using the FIR camera, the STIV technique can capture water surface features better than conventional cameras even at low resolution. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that measurements during the night can be conducted without any difficulty.