Application of geostatistical interpolation methods for estimating the mean velocity in a trapezoidal cross section

The spatial distribution of flow velocity is a fundamental characteristic of a river channel. Predicting the velocity profile by exploiting the progress of the Geographical Information System – GIS will be a useful tool for the engineers who work on hydrological, hydraulic, environmental and other similar issues. The main objective of this project is to estimate the mean value of the flow velocity in a specific trapezoidal cross-section of a river, using geostatistical spatial interpolation methods. Exploiting the spatial interpolation features of GIS a velocity vertical profile at the specified cross-section will be produced, by interpolating collected current velocity data. This optical representation of the velocity vertical profile will be used to calculate the mean value of the flow velocity, the total amount of discharge (volume of water passing through a cross section in the river in a unit of time) and the coefficient of roughness of the river, by using the Manning’s formula.