Use of a Multibeam Echosounder
(Sonar) for Critical Infrastructure
Assessments during the
2011 Missouri River Flood
Richard C. Wilson P.E. Associate Director,
USGS Nebraska Water Science Center
Thailand Pollution Control Department
February 10, 2012
Fort Peck Dam
Fort Randall Dam
Missouri River - before
Missouri River - during
2011 Missouri River Flood
June 2011
I-680 Bridge
Looking east
2011 Missouri River Flood
Gavins Point Dam
June 2011
165,000 cfs or 4,700 cms
2011 Flood – Fort Calhoun
Nuclear Power Plant
July 2011
205,000 cfs or
5,805 cms
2011 Flood – Blair Marina
July 2011
205,000 cfs or 5,805 cms
2011 Flood–
South Sioux City
July 24, 2011
175,000 cfs or
4,955 cms
2011 Flood–South Sioux City
July 24, 2011 175,000 cfs or 4,955 cms
2011 Flood-USGS Role
• Daily discharge measurements from
St. Louis to Montana
• Hydrographic surveying for infrastructure
assessment and protection
• Served at Flood Command Center
• Near real-time hydraulic modeling
• Water-quality sampling
• Sediment sampling for sediment-transport analysis
by physical sampling methods and multibeam
echosounder (sonar) soundings: first time ever at
these discharges
• Rapid deployment streamgages
2011 Flood-USGS Measuring
Discharge
• Streamgages
• Real-time stage and discharge information
• Discharge measurements
• Stage-discharge ratings
• Record processing
• Missouri River gages at: Yankton, Maskell, Sioux
City, Decatur, Blair, Omaha, Plattsmouth, NE City,
and Rulo
• Information used by multiple agencies
• Critical to the flood fight, 150 discharge
measurements
2011 Flood-Discharge Measurements
July 1, 2011
Discharge: 207,000 cfs
Gage Height: 35.90 ft
Max Depth: 46.2 ft
Average Depth: 17.2 ft
IA NE 984 ft
Above
Sea Level
938 ft 1,266 ft.
from Iowa
Bank
Missouri River at Omaha, NE
Hydrographic Surveying - Purposes
• Assessments of lakes and reservoirs
• Navigation bathymetry maps
• Quantity measurements of dredged materials
• Inspections of dams, bridges, levees, and other
infrastructure
• Data for hydrodynamic and sediment-transport
models
• Habitat assessment
• Scour assessment
Bathymetric Map
22
Multibeam Echosounder (MBES)
Hydrographic Surveying
• State of the art technology
• Maps the entire bed
• Accurate measurement
• Identifies deep holes, shallow areas, bed
material, debris, structures, fish
Multibeam Echosounder (MBES)
23
•Reson Seabat MBES 7125 - Sonar
•Swath width 130 degrees or 3.5-to-1 ratio
•512 beams, equally spaced data points
collected per ping
•10 to 30 pings per second (US vs. DS)
•Depth from 0.5 to 150 meters
•RTK GPS and inertial measurement unit (IMU)
navigation system for precise positioning
•Maps the entire river bed
Nadar Beam
Reson 7125 Multibeam
Echosounder Components
Projector
Array
Receiver
Array
Sound
Velocity
Probe
Multibeam
Patch Test
Calibration
Roll correction
Pitch correction
Yaw correction
Nadar Beam
Multibeam Data Processing
•Data sets are large, typically 35
million points per bridge survey
•Dell Precision T7500
•Intel Xeon Quad Core Processor
3.46 GHz
•12GB DDR3 SDRAM, 1333MHz,
•2 GeForce GTX 480 2.0 Graphics
Cards
•Software •Navigation: HYSWEEP
•Data processing : Caris
•Data interpretation: ESRI
Accuracy of MBES Surveys
• Multiple factors
– Satellite configuration
– RTKGPS vs. DGPS
– Quality of the GPS benchmark
– Beam angle (degrades at larger angles)
– Motion correction - IMU
– Water depth
• Quality Control
– Bar check
– Repeat survey
– Speed of sound in water
– Compare to previous surveys
2011 Flood-Infrastructure
Assessment and Protection
• USGS conducted multiple
hydrographic sonar surveys, June–
December 2011
– Bridge piers and abutments
– Transmission towers
– Intake structures
– River bed
– Side channels
– Levees
– Pipelines
2011 Flood-
Difficult Operations •Dangerous work
•Lack of access
•Submerged boat ramps
•Entry points: roads,
ditches, anywhere
•Long travel times to
the survey site
•High velocity flows
•Eroding banks
•Restricted use
•Corps of Engineers
•USGS
•Coast Guard
•Others
2011 Flood-
Bridge
Scour
Sioux City
June 25
2011 Flood-
Multibeam
Survey
Results
31
2011 Flood-Multibeam Results Hwy-51
Flow
Hwy 51
Overbank Flood
Channel (New)
Failed Abutment
Pier
Decatur
2011 Flood-Multibeam Results Hwy-51
2011 Flood-Multibeam Results
Hwy-51 Bridge Abutment Failure
Flow
Revetment
Pier
Scour Hole
2011 Flood-Scour Hwy-51 Bridge
2011 Flood-Scour Hwy-370 Bridge
• Multibeam
echosounder sonar
• USGS, NDOR,
MODOT crews
• Overall 43 bridges
surveyed from
St. Louis to Montana
2011 Flood-Scour Hwy-2 NE City (depth in meters)
July 19, 2011
210,000 cfs
2011 Flood-Yellowstone River
Pipeline Rupture
“On July 1, 2011, an Exxon Mobil pipeline
ruptured releasing an estimated 42,000 gallons of
oil into the Yellowstone River near Laurel,
Montana. The 12-inch line broke after flooding
scoured the river bed and exposed the pipe, which
had been buried just 5 feet deep in some areas.”
Lincoln Journal Star, Sept 24, 2011
2011 Flood-Multibeam Surveys
of Submerged Pipelines
• Requested by
EPA
• Pipeline and
Hazardous
Materials Safety
Administration
• Coast Guard
• FEMA
• Pipeline
Companies
Original X-Section-Pipeline Company
2011 Flood-Multibeam
Pipeline Surveys
Uncertainties of location and depth
Variability in construction drawings
Required coordination with multiple parties
2011 Flood-Multibeam Pipeline
Surveys
• Small-diameter pipe,
hard to identify
• Multibeam sonar
required
• Buried at different
depths
• 14 pipelines at 4
different locations
• Limited success
• Future techniques
USGS Water-Quality Sampling
Constituents
• Physical
• Inorganics
major-minor
ions, metals,
non-metals
• Nutrients
• Microbiological
• Biological
• Toxicity
• Organics
pesticides and
PCBs
• Radiochemical
Flow-weighted sampling
Nitrate and Nitrite (mg/L) as N
0.01
0.1
1
10
0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000
CO
NC
EN
TR
ATIO
N
STREAMFLOW, IN CFS
Missouri River at Omaha, NE
2001-2010
2011
Atrazine (ug/L)
0.01
0.1
1
10
0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000
CO
NC
EN
TR
ATIO
N
STREAMFLOW, IN CFS
Missouri River at Omaha, NE
2001-2010
2011
Total Phosphorus (mg/L) as P
0.01
0.1
1
10
0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000
CO
NC
EN
TR
ATIO
N
STREAMFLOW, IN CFS
Missouri River at Omaha, NE
2001-2010
2011
2011 Flood-
Sediment
Sampling
• Low turbidity and
suspended sediment
• High bedload
• Rolling sand dunes over 3 meters
• 1st time on the Missouri in 50 years
Suspended Sediment (mg/L)
1
10
100
1000
10000
0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000
CO
NC
EN
TR
ATIO
N
STREAMFLOW, IN CFS
Missouri River at Omaha, NE
2001-2010
2011
Turbidity (NTRU)
1
10
100
1000
10000
0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000
CO
NC
EN
TR
ATIO
N
STREAMFLOW, IN CFS
Missouri River at Omaha, NE
2001-2010
2011
Continuous
Water-Quality
Monitoring
• Dissolved Oxygen
• Specific conductance
• Temperature
• Turbidity
• pH
Discharge
and Dissolved
Oxygen
Turbidity
and Specific
Conductance
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
2/1
2/0
6
8/1
3/0
6
2/1
2/0
7
8/1
3/0
7
2/1
2/0
8
8/1
2/0
8
2/1
1/0
9
8/1
2/0
9
2/1
1/1
0
8/1
2/1
0
2/1
1/1
1
8/1
2/1
1
Tu
rbid
ity, i
n F
NU
Str
ea
mfl
ow
, in
cfs
Missouri River at St. Joseph, MO
Streamflow
Turbidity
Streamflow vs. Turbidity
2011 Flood-Sediment Transport
• Bedload is more difficult
to measure
• Used multibeam to
predict sediment
transport
• Techniques used:
– Modified-Einstein
– Physical sampling
– Bathymetric
time-series
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
400
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
5000
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
De
pth
, in
fee
t
Incr
em
en
tal b
ed
load
, in
to
n/d
Station, in feet
Missouri River at Maskell, NEBedload pass 2Bedload pass 1Depth, in feet
Missouri River - after
USGS CONTACT INFORMATION
Robert B. Swanson Director (402) 328-4110 [email protected] Jason M. Lambrecht Associate Director for Hydrologic Data (402) 328-4124 [email protected]
Richard C. Wilson, P.E. Associate Director for Hydrologic Studies (402) 328-4120 [email protected] Ronald B. Zelt Associate Director NAWQA (402) 328-4140 [email protected]
Nebraska Water Science Center (402) 328-4100
5231 South 19th St. http://ne.water.usgs.gov
Lincoln, NE 68512-1271 On Twitter: @USGSNeb