RTK Water Level Determination in Precise Inland Bathymetric Measurements

Dariusz Popielarczyk

Abstract:	The paper presents application of Real Time Kinematic positioning integrated with classical Total Station technique for sub-centimetre determination of water level changes during single beam bathymetric measurements on the fragment of Vistula river – behind the dam and hydropower. The team of Department of Satellite Geodesy and Navigation from University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn in Poland, coordinated by the author, has prepared and conducted integrated GPS and hydroacoustic measurements in order to develop the digital elevation models of the Vistula bottom with high accuracy. The power station work causes up to 1.7 m movement of vertical reference water surface in aspect of local bathymetric survey. That is why verified hydrographic data had to be brought to the common water level. To determine the final water level, data on the height of the RTK/GPS antenna positioned on the boat during sounding, Total Station data and the digital readings from the power plant water level indicators were considered. The resulting set of adjusted elevation data points were used for construction of the bottom Digital Terrain Models (DTM). A new geo-data model was also used to edit, analyze, visualize and interpret results using 3D visualization environments. This paper describes the basic project stages and results of bathymetric measurements and water level determination using integrated Real Time Kinematic GPS positioning and Total Station Techniques. The classical precise geodetic surveying was used to analyse and confirm the RTK positioning.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 25th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2012) September 17 - 21, 2012 Nashville Convention Center, Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, TN
Pages:	1158 - 1163
Cite this article:	Popielarczyk, Dariusz, "RTK Water Level Determination in Precise Inland Bathymetric Measurements," Proceedings of the 25th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2012), Nashville, TN, September 2012, pp. 1158-1163.
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