Application of scanning river surface flow field monitoring system in monitoring complex flow regimes of waterways

Real-time and accurate monitoring of the surface velocity of rivers is crucial for hydrological research, water resource management, and the safety assurance of waterways. The traditional contact flow measurement method has limitations such as installation difficulties, high maintenance costs, and difficulty in real-time monitoring under complex hydrological conditions. Therefore, this study developed and deployed a non-contact scanning river flow field monitoring system. This system is based on the pulse Doppler system, combined with slot antennas and scanning turntables to achieve wide-angle detection. It integrates intelligent algorithms such as pulse coding matching, distance Doppler processing, WSO optimization clustering, and extreme learning networks to stably invert surface flow velocity and profile flow velocity from complex echoes. Compared with traditional current-measuring radars, the newly developed system has a larger speed measurement range, higher resolution and azimuth resolution. It can achieve coverage of a 120° viewing angle range and has strong anti-interference and fully automatic operation capabilities. In the field application at a hydrological station on the Yangtze River waterway, the system effectively overcame installation deviations and environmental interference, achieving synchronous monitoring of high-resolution surface flow fields and cross-sectional profile flow velocities. The results show that the system provides an efficient, reliable technical solution with broad application prospects for flow pattern monitoring in complex waterway environments.