Efficient discharge monitoring using whitewater sounds

天然和人工白水特征，如急流、瀑布、溢洪道和堰是次声、可听和超声波段的重要声源。然而，尽管它们的声音在监测河流流量和作为河岸声景的主要特征的环境意义方面具有重要意义，但它们的声音很少得到科学研究。在这个项目中，研究人员将在初步工作的基础上开发一种工具，帮助研究人员收集重要但目前不切实际的排放数据。该项目将创建一种监测方法，使水文学家能够比目前更有效地收集河流流量数据，消除数据收集中流量测量后勤的限制，并允许目前不切实际的研究。为了鼓励广泛采用这种方法，他们将向新用户发布一套成熟的、用户友好的传感器/软件组合，其中包括全面的手册和演示实地工作和数据处理的教学录像带。在这个项目中产生的所有仪器和软件将是开源的。他们将在多个层面上促进水文和STEM教育，包括让本科生和研究生参与研究、仪器建设、软件开发，以及向服务不足的学校和社区组织提供K-12服务。这个跨学科项目将帮助培养学生助理跨越学科界限，教授可转移技能，包括电子设计和维护、现场数据收集、分析和科学交流。研究人员将解决两个研究问题：1)如何使用白水特征的声学监测来测量水流？2)白水声的空间分布如何取决于河流和周围环境的特征？调查人员将通过多种尺度的案例研究来解决他们的第一个问题，从河流上的瀑布到山间溪流上的河流。特别是，他们将研究声学在记录低阶和间歇溪流方面的效用，尽管这些溪流具有水文、生态和政策意义，但仍未得到充分监测。为了回答第二个问题，他们将通过收集白水特征周围噪声的快照空间调查来描述白水声景，并评估排放、白水特征、植被和地形如何影响溪流噪声的程度和强度。这个问题与广泛的社区相关，包括水文学家（声学测量的地点选择），地球物理学家（了解重要和可变的背景噪音来源），生态学家（溪流声音帮助野生动物作为导航信标，或损害它们听到捕食者或猎物的能力），以及城市和娱乐规划者（背景声音对人类的健康有可测量的影响）。该项目由水文科学项目和地球科学部的仪器和设施项目共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Natural and artificial whitewater features like rapids, waterfalls, spillways, and weirs are important acoustic sources in the infrasound, audible, and ultrasound bands. However, their sounds have received little scientific study despite their utility in monitoring streamflow and their environmental significance as dominant features of the riparian soundscape. In this project, the investigators will build on preliminary work and develop a tool for helping researchers collect important but currently impractical discharge data. This project will create a monitoring method that can enable hydrologists to collect streamflow data more efficiently than is currently possible, removing the constraint of stream-gaging logistics on data collection and permitting studies that are currently impractical. To encourage widespread adoption of the method, they will release a mature, user-friendly sensor/software combination with comprehensive manuals and instructional videos demonstrating fieldwork and data processing for new users. All instrumentation and software produced in this project will be open-source. They will promote hydrological and STEM education at multiple levels by including undergraduate and graduate students in research, instrumentation construction, software development, and K-12 outreach to underserved schools and community organizations. This interdisciplinary project will help train student assistants to work across disciplinary boundaries and teach transferable skills including electronic design and maintenance, field data collection, analysis, and scientific communication.The investigators will address two research questions: 1) how can acoustic monitoring of whitewater features be used to measure streamflow? 2) how does the spatial distribution of whitewater sounds depend on characteristics of the stream and surroundings? The investigators will address their first question with case studies of many scales, ranging from waterfalls on rivers to riffles on mountain streams. In particular, they will examine the utility of acoustics for recording low-order and intermittent streams, which are under-monitored despite their hydrological, ecological, and policy significance. To answer the second question, they will characterize whitewater soundscapes by collecting snapshot spatial surveys of noise around whitewater features and assessing how discharge, whitewater feature characteristics, vegetation, and topography affect stream noise extent and intensity. This question is relevant to wide-ranging communities including hydrologists (site selection for acoustic gaging), geophysicists (understanding a important and variable source of background noise), ecologists (stream sounds aiding wildlife as navigational beacons, or impairing their ability to hear predators or prey), and urban and recreational planners (background sounds have measurable health effects on humans). This project is co-funded by the Hydrological Sciences Program and the Instrumentation and Facilities Program in the Earth Sciences Division.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.