A new methodology for virtual water level Gauges

Monitoring water stored in lakes and reservoirs is much needed in various countries for energy generation, food security and mitigating floods, among recurrent global issues. Natural and human-made open water bodies do not all have monitoring systems, this lack of regular information generates uncer...

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Main Author: Chemin, Yann H.
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/77033
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author Chemin, Yann H.
author_browse Chemin, Yann H.
author_facet Chemin, Yann H.
author_sort Chemin, Yann H.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Monitoring water stored in lakes and reservoirs is much needed in various countries for energy generation, food security and mitigating floods, among recurrent global issues. Natural and human-made open water bodies do not all have monitoring systems, this lack of regular information generates uncertainties in modeling, and increases unaccounted time-bound residuals in water balances. A large amount of water bodies storage variations are not monitored around the World. Here we show that this can be changed by the creation and the implementation of the concept of water Level Virtual Gauges (wLVGs) based on slope tracks upstream of water bodies, correlated to publicly available satellite remote sensing information returning water levels bi-monthly on average, sometimes weekly. An operational RMSE is found to be 12-52 cm height, depending on the characteristics of the upstream slopes used to calibrate wLVGs. This methodology is simple enough to be implemented for all medium to large reservoirs, but is alsofound successful for smaller rural reservoirs in tropical/sub-tropical countries. We anticipate that this can open globally distributed pathways to monitor open water bodies across the World, improve public databases on water storages and give management information for non/less-monitored water bodies.
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spelling CGSpace770332023-06-12T15:19:32Z A new methodology for virtual water level Gauges Chemin, Yann H. virtual water water levels water storage water balance lakes reservoir storage energy generation calibration monitoring Monitoring water stored in lakes and reservoirs is much needed in various countries for energy generation, food security and mitigating floods, among recurrent global issues. Natural and human-made open water bodies do not all have monitoring systems, this lack of regular information generates uncertainties in modeling, and increases unaccounted time-bound residuals in water balances. A large amount of water bodies storage variations are not monitored around the World. Here we show that this can be changed by the creation and the implementation of the concept of water Level Virtual Gauges (wLVGs) based on slope tracks upstream of water bodies, correlated to publicly available satellite remote sensing information returning water levels bi-monthly on average, sometimes weekly. An operational RMSE is found to be 12-52 cm height, depending on the characteristics of the upstream slopes used to calibrate wLVGs. This methodology is simple enough to be implemented for all medium to large reservoirs, but is alsofound successful for smaller rural reservoirs in tropical/sub-tropical countries. We anticipate that this can open globally distributed pathways to monitor open water bodies across the World, improve public databases on water storages and give management information for non/less-monitored water bodies. 2016 2016-09-13T08:14:17Z 2016-09-13T08:14:17Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/77033 en Limited Access Chemin, Yann. 2016. A new methodology for virtual water level Gauges. International Journal of Geoinformatics, 12(1):15-25.
spellingShingle virtual water
water levels
water storage
water balance
lakes
reservoir storage
energy generation
calibration
monitoring
Chemin, Yann H.
A new methodology for virtual water level Gauges
title A new methodology for virtual water level Gauges
title_full A new methodology for virtual water level Gauges
title_fullStr A new methodology for virtual water level Gauges
title_full_unstemmed A new methodology for virtual water level Gauges
title_short A new methodology for virtual water level Gauges
title_sort new methodology for virtual water level gauges
topic virtual water
water levels
water storage
water balance
lakes
reservoir storage
energy generation
calibration
monitoring
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/77033
work_keys_str_mv AT cheminyannh anewmethodologyforvirtualwaterlevelgauges
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