Dates:

Thursday 16th March to Friday 17th March 2017

Location/Venue

Thredbo River @ Paddy's Corner (off Gaden Trout Farm Road, near Jindabyne). The Thredbo River is a major tributary to Lake Jindabyne.

The location for the Regatta gives a good onsite mix of environmental conditions and will allow for a more diverse range of measurement challenges which was one of the primary suggestions made from surveys following the 2015 Regatta.

The venue is located on a publicly accessible reserve adjacent to a Snowy Hydro stream monitoring site and is freely available for all to attend.

Objectives:

• Following on from the 2015 inaugural regatta, focus on areas identified for further Regattas including:
• A location to challenge processes/SOP's and technology with a mix of good and bad sections;
• Test more aspects of Hydrometric Guideline 8 under a wider range of conditions;

As well as the themes previously outlined for the 2015 Regatta;

• Provide an opportunity for practitioners/organisations to 'pressure test' and discuss application of ADCP discharge measurement techniques and processes against the National Industry Guidelines for hydrometric monitoring, Part 8, Application of Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers to Measure Discharge in Open Channels
• Enable opportunity for continuous improvement discussions between practitioners and suppliers with regards to the effectiveness/practicalities of the Guideline, application of techniques and instrument and gauging hardware applications
• Validate ADCP performance by conducting comparison measurements and provide information to enable assessment of repeatability of data outputs.
• Provide opportunities to compare and share knowledge on data collection techniques, procedures, instruments and application in a potential variety of field conditions amongst practitioners and peers.
• Compile a report on results and outcomes for knowledge sharing amongst the National Hydrometric Industry.

The potential to have a session on basic bathymetry applications (Bathymetry 101) with off the shelf products is being considered/investigated as a part of the two day program. Possible focus areas might include:

• Low cost interfacing of handheld GPS units with your ADCP – How to etc
• Undertaking a small bathymetry exercise with the gear we have, using a variety of techniques.
• Give exposure to ADCP users as to the further potential projects that the ADCP systems can be deployed for (not just for measuring flow)

View Xylem's selection of ADP's/ADCP's

• SonTek RiverSurveyor S5 and M9
• SonTek ADP - Acoustic Doppler Profiler

The Regatta Location Provides

• A channel stretch of approx. 30m to 40m wide sections. The area contains sections of fast moving shallow water on a rocky bed to a large sandy pool with distinct flow patterns due to its location on a bend. Dependent on flow conditions at the time
• Natural hazards such as an island upstream and several riffle sections to create many hydraulic conditions and to test methods used.
• Permanent SHL traveler line set up in the main body of the channel and SHL Hydrographer onsite to assist with site knowledge.
• Natural flows at this time of year are statistically in the 2-10 cumecs range. These are identified safe wading flows at this site.

Program (Draft)

To be developed further but is expected to take the form of:

Day 1(Intended start at 0900 at site)
AM 0830 – 0930 Meet at stream location – briefing on site characteristics and how the days activities will progress and commence measurement activities.
AM/Lunch/PM – complete regatta activities at the selected location. Collate data for comparison/interpretation/discussion

Day 2:
Option A
AM – Meeting at Snowy Hydro, Discovery Centre in Cooma, collate , report and discuss results from previous days gauging's
PM – Wrap up and potential future activities.
The intent would be to be finished by 3pm

Option B
AM – Meeting Venue TBA – short session on Bathymetry 101
Late AM/Lunch through to PM – location to undertake some bathymetry.

Download detailed information about the regatta (PDF)