USGS Station on Columbia River (Vancouver Washington)
The USGS Oregon Water Science Center has installed multiple LISST-ABS instruments at monitoring stations in their domain. Designed by Sequoia Scientific, Inc. the all-acoustic LISST-ABS technology provides a stable output of real-time sediment concentration data. The USGS operates these units at two stations on the Columbia River, a station on the Willamette River, and station on the Cowlitz River. On these stations, the USGS collects backscatter values from water velocity meters in order to derive suspended sediment timeseries models. In addition to the LISST-ABS’s, the stations also include additional equipment that potentially will be used in future models: Turbidity meters, water elevation gauges, and thermistors. Collected data is used to study the sediment dynamics of the lower Columbia River by the USGS and supports the US Army Corp of Engineers’ environmental mission.
Photos Courtesy of Patrick Haluska