Survey on river water level measuring technologies: Case study for flood management purposes of the C2-SENSE project

Abstract

In our survey we point out the most relevant features of water level monitoring methods applicable in Flood Warning Systems with respect to the framework of C2-SENSE project. We discuss the most common approaches to water level measurements regarding their spatial and temporal distribution and continuity of data recording and transfer. In detail we refer to three the widest applied methods of water level measurements, namely standard water gauge-based water level assessment, automatic pressure transducers and radar measurements of water table elevation. We refer to the most common problems of water level measurements related to the uncertainty of measurements and flaws of technical solutions applied. We revealed that the most critical features of water level monitoring frameworks are (i) assuring high quality of measurements by permanent quality check of automatic measurements, (ii) avoiding human-based measurements of water levels as being inappropriate in critical and dangerous flood events and (iii) assuring-if possible-continuity of data transfer from monitoring stations to final user along with avoiding public GSM networks being overloaded by private users during floods. In this survey the contribution of the C2-SENSE project to improvement of water level measurements for flood warning systems.