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Big Gypsum, Dolores River <br />Over athree-day period, May 16, 17, and 18, 2000, bathymetric data was <br />collected using the GPS/sonar methodalong a 3-km section of the Dolores River in the <br />Big Gypsum Valley. As was the case with the Yampa River, the lower than normal <br />runoff flows made data collection using sonar more difficult. Also, certain parts of the <br />river were too shallow for the sonar. Several days were spent in June and July 2000 <br />logging additional points by the walking method. Waterline/water surface shots were <br />made on July 6 and 7, 2000, and on June 13 and 14, 2001. <br />Velocity Measurements <br />To calibrate modeled data, it is necessary to have obtained field measurements of <br />depth and velocity at known flows. While depth can be gathered using the same <br />technologies that are used in determining bathymetry, velocity measurements require <br />another set of instruments. Two different technologies were used for measuring <br />velocities in this project. <br />In 1998, a Marsh McBirney Flo-Mate Portable Flowmeter was used in <br />conjunction with the total station to determine point velocities. The Marsh McBernie had <br />a published accuracy of 1.Scm/s +/- 2 percent. This flowmeter was based on the <br />electrical principle known as Faraday's Law. Here the flow rates were determined by <br />passing a conductive fluid through a magnetic field. A wading rod that held the meter <br />head was placed at a depth chosen to represent average velocity (usually 0.6 of total <br />depth). Locations were recorded by shooting the point with the total station and then <br />recording the average of three 10-second averages. After 1999, locations were recorded <br />by locating the position with the RTK GPS and then recording the velocity of that point. <br />At high flows it is often not practical to use a wading rod to measure velocities. <br />In May of 2000, a 3MHZ Sontek River Surveyor Acoustic Doppler Profiler (ADP) was <br />used to gather calibration data at the 15-mile reach. The ADP measured the velocity of <br />water using a physical principle called the Doppler shift. This principle stated that if a <br />source of sound was moving relative to the receiver, the frequency of the sound at the <br />receiver was shifted from the transmit frequency. By determining the Doppler shift using <br />three beams, it was possible to determine the relative speed and direction of the flow. <br />Using the Doppler shift from-the river bottom to determine the boat speed and direction, <br />we computed absolute velocity and direction. The ADP measured velocities in 15 cm <br />vertical increments down to the river bottom. These velocities were averaged over a <br />specified time interval. <br />Data Reduction and Preparation <br />The GPS/sonar technique produced a large number of data in a short amount of <br />time. It generally was not possible to perform any quality control as the data was being <br />collected. Data reduction and quality control were accomplished using an Excel- macro <br />that stripped out non-sensible or incomplete points so only points that met a set of <br />29 <br />