[env-trinity] Times- Standard- Scientists to test new acoustical hydrophones on Trinity River

[Tom Stokely]

Scientists to test new acoustical hydrophones on Trinity River

http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_20508299/scientists-test-new-acoustical-hydrophones-trinity-river 
The Times-Standard
Posted:   04/29/2012 02:07:38 AM PDT

During the upcoming peak of the restoration releases in early May, a group of scientists will be testing acoustical hydrophones as a potential tool for monitoring sediment transport in rivers.
”The Trinity River's managed high flow releases, combined with a world-class sediment monitoring program, make the Trinity a unique platform for outside researches to test new technologies to measure sediment transport,” according to a press release from the Trinity River Restoration Program.
Acoustical hydrophones are microphones designed for underwater recording or listening.
They are typically used for finding submarines or listening to whale songs, but in 2006, a doctoral student at Penn State University experimented with using hydrophones to measure sediment transport in rivers based on the knowledge that as rocks roll down the river during floods, they hit each other and make a clanging sound.
The Trinity River Restoration Program currently uses traditional methods for measuring sediment transport that are labor intensive, cost prohibitive, produce a small number of samples and require high-risk work conditions. Technology like hydrophones could provide a safe, low-cost alternative that would produce continuous sediment measurement, the release said.
If successful, it would greatly benefit not only the Trinity but the study and management of rivers around the world, according to the program.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Denver
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recently secured funding through a science and technology grant program to further pursue the research and development of hydrophone technology to measure sediment transport. The research is a collaborative effort with the National Center for Physical Acoustics at the University of Mississippi.
The Trinity River Restoration Program is contributing by sharing sediment transport data that is already collected during their current work processes.

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