How To Measure The Cross Section Of A River

Use this option to generate different river cross sections to the same scale.
How to measure the cross section of a river. In general river discharge is computed by multiplying the area of water in a channel cross section by the average velocity of the water in that cross section. The measurement of the width of the channel and of individual segments or finding the position across the river relative to a fixed reference are obtained by measuring the distance from or to a fixed reference point on the river bank. Then draw these locations and the water surface to scale on graph paper and count the squares to determine the area.
The first stage is to measure the width and depth of the river. Whether you need to find the discharge or examine the profile of a feature such as a meander or riffle it will be necessary to produce a cross section of the river. Cross sectional area csa m 2 this is a simple calculation to measure the amount of water at each site the cross sectional area of the water.
Enter number of depth measurements min 5 max 25 select cross section type. River cross section creator and calculator. Change river cross section title.
A long waterproof tape measure is needed to find the width of the river. Set cross section x axis range. The data can then be plotted to create a scale diagram of the cross section or used to find the cross sectional area and wetted perimeter of the river.
The simplest approach to measuring cross sectional area is to locate a number of points on the stream bottom by measuring down from the tagline or yardstick at regular intervals see in fig. Enter the minimum and maximum x axis values required.