Reclamation Information Sharing Environment (RISE)

The Arroyo de los Pinos (ADLP) sediment research station was constructed in 2018 and continues to monitor flow and sediment flux whenever there are monsoons-based runoff events in the basin. The station is in Socorro, New Mexico. The associated instruments deploy automatically to monitor river stage, flow velocity, and bedload flux, which includes acoustic impacts as a surrogate for bedload, narrow-band and broad-band seismic sensors as a surrogate for bedload, suspended sediment concentration (SSC), and turbidity as a surrogate for SSC. Acoustic impact sensors have faced challenges at the ADLP. Notwithstanding, data from the impact sensors are calibrated to sediment flux with promising success. Fluvial seismology is a growing area of research, and the ADLP station and the Arroyo de los Montoyas are on the cutting edge. Non-contact deployments for surrogates are attractive due to reduced risks to human safety and sediment related equipment damage. Challenges are as prevalent with this technology as with any previous surrogate technologies. Continued investigations will indicate whether or not the value of the data and the reduced risk to personnel and equipment will outweigh the methods needed to overcome the challenges.