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Abstract Part 8

This document presents a low-cost method for monitoring relative streamflow dynamics in small headwater streams using time-lapse imagery and a deep learning model. The approach involves capturing images of the stream, annotating them for flow comparison, and training a model to rank the images, resulting in a relative hydrograph that correlates well with observed data. The method aims to enhance monitoring capabilities for underrepresented freshwater habitats and provide valuable insights for ecological modeling.

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5 views1 page

Abstract Part 8

This document presents a low-cost method for monitoring relative streamflow dynamics in small headwater streams using time-lapse imagery and a deep learning model. The approach involves capturing images of the stream, annotating them for flow comparison, and training a model to rank the images, resulting in a relative hydrograph that correlates well with observed data. The method aims to enhance monitoring capabilities for underrepresented freshwater habitats and provide valuable insights for ecological modeling.

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luatnv
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Title: Technical note: A low-cost approach to monitoring relative streamflow dynamics in small headwater

streams using time lapse imagery and a deep learning model

Author: Goodling, Phillip J. (57202033586); Fair, Jennifer Hoyle (57208149326); Gupta, Amrita
(59494499200); Walker, Jeffrey D. (35099772600); Dubreuil, Todd L. (8703220700); Hayden, Michael J.
(59923781100); Letcher, Benjamin H. (6701770364)

Year Publisher: 2025 Volume: 29 Issue: 22

DOI: 10.5194/hess-29-6445-2025

Abstract

Despite their ubiquity and importance as freshwater habitat, small headwater streams are under-monitored by
existing stream gage networks. To address this gap, we describe a low-cost, non-contact, and low-effort method
that enables organizations to monitor relative streamflow dynamics in small headwater streams. The method
uses a camera to capture repeat images of the stream from a fixed position. A person then annotates pairs of
images, in each case indicating which image has more apparent streamflow or indicating equal flow if no
difference is discernible. A deep learning modeling framework called streamflow rank estimation (SRE) is then
trained on the annotated image pairs and applied to rank all images from highest to lowest apparent streamflow.
From this result a relative hydrograph can be derived. We found that our modeled relative hydrograph dynamics
matched the observed hydrograph dynamics well for 11 cameras at 8 streamflow sites in western
Massachusetts. Higher performance was observed during the annotation period (median Kendall's Tau rank
correlation of 0.75, with a range of 0.6-0.83) than after it (median Kendall's Tau of 0.59, with range 0.34-0.74).
We found that annotation performance was generally consistent across the 11 camera sites and 2 individual
annotators and was positively correlated with streamflow variability at a site. A scaling simulation determined
that model performance improvements were limited after 1000 annotation pairs. Our model's estimates of
relative flow, while not equivalent to absolute flow, may still be useful for many applications, such as
ecological modeling and calculating event-based hydrological statistics (e.g., the number of out-of-bank
floods). We anticipate that this method will be a valuable tool to extend existing stream monitoring networks
and provide new insights on dynamic headwater systems. © © 2025 Phillip J. Goodling et al.

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