Abstract:Using the existing video surveillance camera, an image-based flow measurement system is developed to realize non-contact water level, surface velocity and discharge on-line telemetry. The system is powered by a wind and photovoltaic hybrid power source and remotely accessed via the 4G mobile communication network with VPN technology. It can automatically run in the wild for up to 7 rainy days. A small number of low-cost auxiliary measuring devices are integrated and the measuring algorithms are optimized for field application. On account of this, the influence of water surface noises like glares and shadows is effectively decreased, and the surface velocities can be directly measured by tracing of nature floating debris or free-surface patterns. Testing results show that, the system can perform single measurement in minutes, output data including video and image on site, stable time-averaged water level, high density velocity distribution and discharge with subsections up to hundreds. Compared with traditional flow measurement instruments, it is superior in high spatial and temporal resolution, thus has great potential to record the hydrological processes under extreme conditions, such as rainstorm and flash flood.