Integrated automatic and continuous bedload monitoring in gravel bed rivers

Surrogate technologies to monitor bed load discharge have been developed to supplement and ultimately take over traditional direct methods. Our research deals with passive acoustic monitoring of bed load flux using a hydrophone continuously deployed near a river bed. This passive acoustic technology senses any acoustic waves propagated in the river environment and particularly the sound due to interparticle collisions emitted during bed load movement. A data set has been acquired in the large Alpine gravel‐bedded Drau River. Analysis of the short‐term frequency response of acoustic signals allows us to determine the origin of recorded noises and to consider their frequency variations. Results are compared with ancillary field data of water depth and bed load transport inferred from the signals of a geophone array. Hydrophone and geophone signals are well correlated. Thanks to the large network of deployed geophones, analysis of the spatial resolution of hydrophone measurements shows that the sensor is sensitive to bed load motion not only locally but over distances of 5–10 m (10–20% of river width). Our results are promising in terms of the potential use of hydrophones for monitoring bed load transport in large gravel bed rivers: acoustic signals represent a large river bed area, rather than being local; hydrophones can be installed in large floods; they can be deployed at a low cost and provide continuous monitoring at high temporal resolution.

Due to the problems and characteristics of traditional slope disaster monitoring, including static, intermittent, offline, easy interference, easy failure, full labor, etc., the three technologies of the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and the Kalman filtering model are now applied to slope disaster, and a set of automatic monitoring and early warning platform system suitable for the characteristics of slope disaster is developed. Through the platform, realize the visualization, continuous, real-time online, interference avoidance, no failure, and automatic monitoring methods, to meet the requirements of the accuracy, timeliness, and intelligence of the early warning and forecast of the monitoring objects, The collection, transmission, processing, early warning, and forecast of the monitoring data are all completed by the automatic monitoring system. We provide reasonable and reliable early warning and prediction threshold values and calculation methods, accurately determine the slope engineering early warning threshold value, and realize the prediction of the development trends of the monitoring data. Meanwhile, according to the size of the monitoring data and its changing trend, we also determine the early warning level and warn accordingly, and standardized the early warning and disposal process including the expert-assisted decision-making system, fast, timely, multichannel information release, and early warning disposal.

ABSTRACTSeveral methods were employed in the Ardennian rivers (Belgium) to determine the depth of the active layer mobilized during floods and to evaluate the bedload discharge associated with these events. The use of scour chains has shown that the depth of the active layer is systematically less than the b‐axis of the average particle size (D50) of the elements which compose the surface layer of the riffles. This indicates that only a partial transport exists during low magnitude floods. The bedload discharge has been evaluated by combining data obtained using the scour chains technique and the distance covered by tracers. Quantities of sediment transported during frequent floods are relatively low (0·02 t km–2) due to the armour layer which protects the subsurface material. These low values are also related to the fact that the distance calculated for mobilized bedload only applies to tracers fitted with PIT (passive integrated transponder)‐tags (diameter > 20 mm), whereas part of the bedload discharge is composed of sand and fine gravel transported over greater distances than the pebbles. The break‐up of the armour layer was observed only once, for a decennial discharge. During this event, the bedload discharge increased considerably (2 t km–2). The use of sediment traps, data from dredging and a Helley–Smith sampler confirm the low bedload transport in Ardennian rivers in comparison to the bedload transport in other geomorphological contexts. This difference is explained by the presence of an armoured layer but also by the imbricated structures of flat bed elements which increase the resistance to the flow. Finally, the use of the old iron industry wastes allowed to quantify the thickness of the bed reworked over the past centuries. In the Lembrée River, the river‐bed contains slag elements up to a depth of about 50 cm, indicating that exceptional floods may rework the bed to a considerable depth. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The non-weighing lysimeter system in the Minqin desert areas was firstly used in the 1970 s, and mainly performed the orientation research on the water consumption by the transpiration of several desert plants and the evaporation on the surface of sand, which aimed to provide the theoretical guide for the selection of afforestation density and the utilization of sand and water in Chinese sand areas. At present the system has been running for 30 years, most of the lysimeters showed the jam and leakage phenomenon, and the observation was by conventional artificial means. All the factors seriously affected the accuracy of the data monitoring. However, on the basis of the non-weighing lysimeter system structure and its testing principle, the evapotranspiration area could be extended, the capacity of testing soil column could be increased, more real natural environment conditions could be simulated and the limitations of weighing lysimeter could be overcome, in sum, the lysimeter's application field and adaptability were extended. Owing to the problems of low automation, and lack of scalability and reliability, the non-weighed lysimeter monitoring and control system in the Minqin desert areas has been retrofitted to improve its performance based on structure characteristics. The non-weighed lysimeter proving ground of 720 m2was designed in Minqin sand areas, where 30 individual lysimeters (120 cm×120 cm) of desert plant were upgraded and 12 small groups of desert plant lysimeters (400 cm×400 cm) were expanded and built, at the same time, the lysimeter groups in different types could be used to carry out the test of water supply for plant under the constant water level of 190, 290 and 390 cm. The lysimeter proving ground upgraded and expanding-built could realize synchronous observation for evapotranspiration test from the desert plant individual scale to small group scale, and the experiment platform was provided for studying water consumption of desert plants transpiration in different scale and its coupling relationship. The distributed monitoring scheme was adopted in the new automatic monitoring system, in which the superior industrial computer was set up as the center with multiple lower machine monitoring points, such as lysimeter constant water level control and water-supplying measurement system, drainage measurement system, atmospheric precipitation monitoring system, soil moisture monitoring system, environment temperature measurement and control system, SMS cat alarm system, data remote transmission and monitoring system, and UPS over-voltage protection system, and the RS485 bus, ISM wireless communication and TCP/IP network structure were used in the system. The automatic control of the lysimeter water level, water supply and drainage, the automatic monitoring of water metering, and the soil water content were designed, and the atmospheric rainfall and the temperature indoor were monitored in real time in the new system; the system also had the functions of real-time data collection and processing, information communication and data entering, historical data storage, data report printing and remote transmission download, and the power supply system was protected against over-voltage to enhance the reliability of system operation and the stability of data acquisition. Additionally, the internet-based remote monitoring and control system was used, and the users could process the abnormal situation. According to the monitoring data analysis by the regression method, we could know that the errors of data regression analysis were ± 2.2% for the pressure sensor, ± 2.0% for the drop counter and ± 12.5% for the moisture sensors. The research extended the scale for locating observation of the desert plant and implemented the automatic monitoring for evapotranspiration of the desert plant. © 2015, Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering. All right reserved.

Diabetes management has grown significantly in the past few years thanks to Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) devices. CGMs are clever devices that track glucose levels in real-time, providing profound observations that help track information related to diabetes, which was not possible before. Unlike traditional fingerstick tests, continuous monitoring systems use small, minimally invasive sensors to measure glucose levels under the skin, giving both patients and healthcare providers a transparent picture of how glucose changes throughout the day. The paper explores how CGM systems work, including their sensor design, the algorithms used to process the data collected from sensors, and the integration of sensors with insulin delivery systems. The paper also covers recent advancements that make CGMs more user-friendly and efficient. However, every system has challenges like cost, accessibility, and data privacy, and these still need to be addressed to make CGMs widely available. By exploring the technology behind the continuous monitoring systems, this paper highlights their powerful impact on diabetes management and CGMs' potential use in the future. The advancements in glucose monitoring systems would include non-invasive glucose monitoring and artificial intelligence to help people make more informed decisions about their health. CGMs are designed to fit into people's lives effortlessly. With intuitive interfaces and easy integration with other devices, they are making diabetes management not just more effective but also more accessible and convenient for every individual.

Evaluation of MS Kinect for Elderly Meal Intake Monitoring

HRS Expert Consensus Statement on remote interrogation and monitoring for cardiovascular implantable electronic devices.

In order to prevent damages to the underground pipelines, automatic, continuous, and low-cost monitoring systems are becoming indispensable. Recent reports showed that most pipeline damage is caused by the third-party activities, which can be identified by detecting for dangerous construction equipments nearby, rather than the material failure and corrosion. This paper focuses on acoustically recognizing road cutters since they prelude most construction activities in modern cities. In this paper, a novel monitoring mechanism is proposed for sound-based pipeline monitoring system. Instead of the conventional approach of using overlapped frames, this paper proposes segmenting sound into separate frames, with an interval between every two frames. After gathering sound samples, a tag stack decision maker is also proposed to make the final decision. Different features of two acoustic recognition technologies, Mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) and linear prediction coding cepstrum (LPCC), were studied, tried, and compared. For the classifiers, both the Euclidean cepstral distance and one-class support vector machine (SVM) were studied. Real site experiments were conducted and the resulting data were analyzed. Recognition success rate at different conditions were studied and compared. Our results showed that MFCC feature performs the best. Cepstral Euclidean distance is simple but effective, while one-class SVM can help to extend the classification capabilities. The sound recognition technologies studied in this paper will be very useful for future pipeline monitoring systems to prevent accidental breakage, thus ensuring the safety of underground lifeline infrastructures. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Application of a fully automatic analysis tool to assess the activity of broiler chickens with different gait scores

We proposed a completely unconstrained method for long-term monitoring sleep quality of residents in nursing homes using an Internet-based automatic sleep monitoring system, Umemory. When a resident lies in bed, his/her heart pulsation, respiration, and body movement are sensed by a piezoelectric transducer under a mattress. The corresponding digital signal is sent to database servers via Internet, and further processed in the servers. 1090 days' data from 13 subjects in 2 nursing homes were obtained by this system for evaluation. Through comparing with records provided by nursing home staff, we found that this system could provide detailed information about the nursing home residents' sleep quality. Furthermore, the analysis result provided information such as in-bed body movement and sleep quality, which was unable to be constantly observed by nursing home staff at all. Therefore, it is concluded that our method may serve as an effective and convenient tool for automatic monitoring nursing home residents' sleep quality. This system may also lessen the burden of nursing home staff and be used to optimize personal specific healthcare service.

Relationships between hydraulic variables and bedload transport in a subalpine channel, Colorado Rocky Mountains, U.S.A.

Interplay of flow and bed morphology caused by pool-riffle sequence formation without upstream sediment supply in gravel-bed rivers

In gravel-bed rivers, bedload transport exhibits considerable variability in\ntime and space. Recently, stochastic bedload transport theories have been\ndeveloped to address the mechanisms and effects of bedload transport\nfluctuations. Stochastic models involve parameters such as particle\ndiffusivity, entrainment and deposition rates. The lack of hard information on\nhow these parameters vary with flow conditions is a clear impediment to their\napplication to real-world scenarios. In this paper, we determined the closure\nequations for the above parameters from laboratory experiments. We focused on\nshallow supercritical flow on a sloping mobile bed in straight channels, a\nsetting that was representative of flow conditions in mountain rivers.\nExperiments were run at low sediment transport rates under steady nonuniform\nflow conditions (i.e., the water discharge was kept constant, but bedforms\ndeveloped and migrated upstream, making flow nonuniform). Using image\nprocessing, we reconstructed particle paths to deduce the particle velocity and\nits probability distribution, particle diffusivity, and rates of deposition and\nentrainment. We found that on average, particle acceleration, velocity and\ndeposition rate were responsive to local flow conditions, whereas entrainment\nrate depended strongly on local bed activity. Particle diffusivity varied\nlinearly with the depth-averaged flow velocity. The empirical probability\ndistribution of particle velocity was well approximated by a Gaussian\ndistribution when all particle positions were considered together. In contrast,\nthe particles located in close vicinity to the bed had exponentially\ndistributed velocities. Our experimental results provide closure equations for\nstochastic or deterministic bedload transport models.\n

Predicting the flow conditions required to entrain sediment in gravel-bed rivers is essential for many issues, such as river ecology, flood risk assessment, river restoration and sustainable river management, among many others. In this regard, the critical Shields parameter is the most commonly used metric to characterise particle entrainment in bedload transport studies. Consequently, the determination of critical Shields is fundamental to the prediction of bedload transport in gravel-bed rivers. Conventional field studies have focused on estimating a reach-averaged Shields stress, despite the large spatial variability that this parameter exhibits at the reach scale. This is largely due to the lack of standardised field approaches for characterising Shields stress in a spatially distributed manner. In this work, we propose a field-based procedure for estimating the frequency distribution of critical Shields at the patch scale in a gravel-bed river, based on the measurement of resistance to movement of individual clasts and a number of variables related to the position and orientation of grains. Following this procedure, we have approximated the patch-scale variability of particle entrainment conditions in a gravel bar of the Upper Cinca River, located in the southern watershed of the Pyrenees. The results (mean Shields ~0.03) are consistent with previous estimates of critical Shields in this river and with established theory of particle entrainment in gravel-bed rivers. We believe that this method has great potential to provide valuable field information on particle entrainment.Ackowledgements: This research benefitted from the methods and outcomes of the MorphHab research project (PID2019-104979RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICINN), Government of Spain). The work by the first author is also part of the 2023–2026 grant signed between the Spanish Directorate General for Water (DGA-MITERD; Government of Spain) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC-Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities), which includes action “Sedimentary Morphodynamics” (20233TE012: IGME-CSIC; Tarquín 2 Project).

Indirect, passive approaches for monitoring coarse bedload transport could allow cheaper, safer, higher‐resolution, longer‐term data that revolutionises bedload understanding and informs river management. Here, insights provided by seismic impact plates in a downstream reach of a flashy gravel‐bed river (River Avon, Devon, UK) are explored in the context of plate performance. Monitoring of a centrally‐situated plate (IP1) during an extremely wet 12‐month period demonstrated that impacts were related to discharge as a measure of transport potential (R2 = 0.38) but that factors other than transport limitations are important. Analysis of discrete flow events revealed consistent rising‐limb and falling‐limb impact spikes biased toward the latter for larger events. Such patterns may result from disruption of the upstream armour layer (rising limb) and supply enhancements related to both upstream mass bank failures and/or flood routing of non‐local sediment sources (falling limb). Installation of additional impact plates indicated that plate IP1 was indeed dominantly related to instantaneous discharge, that a three‐plate lateral array somewhat better explained impact variability (R2 = 0.49), and that the bedload track shifts laterally with discharge. Aggregating event‐total IP1 impacts against volumetric discharge further increases explanation as intra‐event and stochastic bedload factors are subsumed but left 26% unexplained variance related to the unsampled bedload mass, inter‐event supply differences, and attributes of plate performance. Annualising the data created an impact‐based 'effective discharge’ for this extremely wet year that was closer to morphological bar‐full in magnitude than bankfull, but the preceding results imply this outcome is related as much to supply limitations as transport limitations. Overall, passive approaches offer a liberating prospect for bedload monitoring, capable of producing insights only achievable through high resolution, extended time periods. Such results could potentially inform threshold conditions and geomorphological effectiveness of flows for future river management strategies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.