Estimating discharge in drainage channels through measurements of surface velocity alone: A case study

Both the methods have been extensively described in previous works and validated for medium/large-sized cross-sections where surface measurements are taken by current-meter or Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) sensor. In this technical paper, they are instead applied to a water drainage channel in a reclamation territory characterized by a very low velocity which required a particular measuring technique, called “total station”. This technique demonstrated to be reliable in situations where the velocity is very low and cannot be measured with other “no-contact” techniques, such as those based on the Doppler method, which are normally used when the use of current meters is not possible.