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Modern Hydrometry Timeline
From the early discoveries to the actual technological developments -
Birth of quantitative hydrology
Pierre Perrault published his book "De l'origine des fontaines" which could represents the origin of quantitative hydrology. He demonstrated by means-of quantitative
evaluations that rainfall and snowfall are responsible for river flow, paving the way for a universal recognition of the water cycle in its modern interpretation. Source: 1674-1974 - Three centuries of scientific hydrology, UNESCO-WMO 1974 -
First modern rain gage in Europe
In 1689, Philippe de La Hire set up the first European rain gauge at the Paris Observatory. -
Early mechanical current meter
In Hamburg, Woltman applied a multi-bladed fan to measure river flows in 1790. This was the forerunner to a family of inferential meters and turbine meters,some of which still bear his name. Source: The historical development of flow metering, RS Medlock 1986 Image: Royal Museums Greenwich, UK -
Mechanical current meter by Price
William Gunn Price, of the U.S. Corps of Engineers, designed an exceptionally successful a vertical-axis current meter in 1882. This example, marked “U.S.G.S.,” is a further stage in that development. It is 14.5 inches long. It has a four-blade rudder, and a wheel with six conical buckets. Ref: William Gunn Price, “Current Meter,” U.S. Patent 325011 (1885). Arthur H. Frazier, William Gunn Price and the Price Current Meters (Washington, D.C., 1967), p. 59. -
Horizontal axis current meter with counter
Graëff developed a horizontal axis current meter which incorporates an innovation that we owe to Henry in
the United States: an electric counter. This device already boasts a very modern design. -
Automatic hydrometric station
The legendary mechanical chart recorder for environmental monitoring dates back to 1911, when John C. Stevens invented the Type A chart recorder. The value of the chart recorder in hydrological level measurements quickly became realized worldwide, and J.C. Steven became a partner of Leupold & Volpel. The company was renamed to Leupold & Stevens in 1940.
Over the years, Stevens invented new chart recorders for various applications, such as glacier movement, sewage flow, earthquakes etc. -
Venturi flume
In Fort Collins, Colorado, V.M. Cone developed a device named after Venturi, as it is based on the Venturi effect—a pressure reduction phenomenon occurring when a fluid flows over a constricted section of a pipe. This is the first of a series of devices allowing to estimate the flow based on the water level at a specific point. -
Automatic rain gauge
The first automatic recording rain gauge by O.F. Nilsson from Sweden, patented in 1939, marked the inception of the meteorological network as we understand it today. -
Telemetering of hydrologic data
In 1957, James A. Dale proposed a new telemetering system for transmitting hydrologic data in Tennessee: each gaging station could report every 2 hr and record automatically at receiving station. It wasn't until the 1980s that these techniques became widely adopted. Source: Journal of the Hydraulics Division, Volume 83, Issue 3, https://doi.org/10.1061/JYCEAJ.0000092 -
Chemical tracing for water discharge measurement
Originating from an idea by T. Schloesing in 1863, the development of tracer dilution methods faced challenges due to the low sensitivity of probes, leading to the extensive use of large quantities of saline tracers at the time. Isotope tracing, introduced by D.H. Pilgrim in 1966, was eventually adopted as an efficient method for estimating river discharge. Subsequently, fluorescent dye was proposed as an alternative. Evans (1983) provides a comprehensive review of these methods. -
Electromagnetic current meter
The invention comprises a body made of electrically non-conductive material, supporting a pair of electrically conductive detecting electrodes. It incorporates means for generating an alternating magnetic field between the electrodes and allows for the estimation of flow velocity perpendicular to the electrodes. Source: Patent US3759097A, Vincent J Cushing 1970 -
Real-time monitoring
Remote transmission of height data became widespread in the 1980s. In France, data from the Ministry of the Environment’s networks were made available to the general public by computer servers in the mid-1990s. -
ADCP (Acoustic Doppler current profiler)
Since 1982, the USGS has advocated for the development of a device to measure river flow in conditions that cannot be measured with conventional methods. Since 1988, the company RD Instruments has developed an ADCP device that was first introduced to the market in 1992. Source: RD Instruments, 1989: Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler, principle of operations. Image: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Illustration-of-a-boat-mounted-acoustic-Doppler-current-profiler-ADCP-measuring_fig1_284587353 -
Particle Image Velocimetry for river flow measurement
An image analysis method for the calculation of two-dimensional velocity distributions of river-surface flows is presented. Water surface images are taken from the riverside using a video camera on the Nagara River. Velocity distributions are calculated by the correlation method after a distortion correction. Source: I. Fujita et al.
Application of video image analysis for measurements of river-surface flows
Proc. Hydraul. Engng, JSCE (1994) -
River discharge estimation by satellite data
The pioneering study for the lake Chad from Coe and Birkett applied satellite radar altimetry to the determination of lake and river elevations. With the aid of ground-based information, this technique was extended to determine river discharge and predict downstream lake and marsh height. -
Stereoscopic camera for river discharge measurement
The surface velocity of the river can be efficiently measured using a stereoscopic camera. Particle displacements are determined by two distinct cameras, and the distances of each pixel on the image can be computed. Bacharidis, K., Moirogiorgou, K., Koukiou, G. et al. Stereo System for Remote Monitoring of River Flows. Multimed Tools Appl 77, 9535–9566 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-017-5148-1 -
Citizen Science, IoT, Artificial Intelligence
The 2020s have been marked by three phenomena: citizen science, enabling the involvement of ordinary individuals in describing phenomena that may be challenging to monitor with instruments; Internet of Things, involving low-cost sensors with limited accuracy but high density, providing substantial redundancy and minimizing measurement variance; and AI, a complex system capable of interpreting vast amounts of data, offering solutions to intricate problems.