Assessing Channel Flux Estimates

Error distributions for 3 different metrics used to characterize the accuracy of flux estimates.

The measurement of channel flow within all channels of a river delta is not feasible due to the sheer number of channels and large spatial extents of delta landscapes. Consequently, researchers have developed methods to estimate the relative discharge in distributary channels from remote sensing imagery. In collaboration with scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, we quantified the accuracy of these estimation techniques by comparing field observations reported in the literature to estimates from channel network graphs extracted using RivGraph (see above figure). The delta channel networks used to conduct this analysis are shown on the map below.

Networks analyzed in this study.

Publications

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Hariharan, J., Piliouras, A., Schwenk, J., & Passalacqua, P. (2022). Width-Based Discharge Partitioning in Distributary Networks: How Right We Are. Geophysical Research Letters, 49, e2022GL097897. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL097897

In Other Media

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"Width-Based Discharge Partitioning In Distributary Networks: How Wrong Are We?," 2021 AGU Fall Meeting. https://youtu.be/DnEEIjuPYpg