Aplicación de un Sistema Perfilador Acústico Doppler (ADCP) Para la Obtención de Perfiles Hidrológicos y de Caudal de Ríos en el Distrito Metropolitano de Quito

Abstract

The determination of the flow of a natural source of water, such as rivers and artificial channels, is vital both for water works and to maintain the life of rivers. As for waters contaminated by discharges of sewage from industries and homes to these channels, it is essential to obtain the flow for the evaluation, characterization and management of the water resource. The use of the Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler System (ADCP) has become a very useful tool when obtaining data on flow rate, current speed and velocity profile, draft, profile of the cross section of the sampling point as well as other parameters. In this particular work the flow rates and several profiles were determined for different rivers located in Quito, due to the technology used by these devices, more accurate results are obtained in comparison to conventional methods such as windlasses. It was determined that the presence of solids in large quantities in the water is a problem for the profiler due to the fact that light beams cannot pass through waters that are too turbid, while the variability of the current velocities throughout is observed throughout the cross section of a river represented by its velocity profile and the difference of the flow in rainy seasons and in months where there was no rain.