Streamflow monitoring in a time of change : using image velocimetry methods on citizen videos of the November 2021 flooding in Merritt, British Columbia
department or school: Applied Science, Faculty of
department or school: Civil Engineering, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Yang, Jian Song
issued: 2023-10-18T15:31:40Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Master of Applied Science - MASc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: The atmospheric river event in November 2021 is one of the costliest natural disasters in Canadian history. Among others, the Coldwater River in Merritt, British Columbia breached its banks on November 15th, 2021, resulting in extensive damage to the infrastructure and total evacuation of the residents. Estimating the magnitude of this flood is difficult, as it damaged the local flow monitoring station and altered the surrounding landscape. Parts of this flooding event, including the flow close to its peak, were filmed by local residents using mobile devices or drones. Though with significant perspective distortion and imprecision, they still provide valuable information on this extreme event, which would have otherwise been neglected. This study aims to apply image velocimetry techniques to some of these videos, with limited resources and outdated geodata, for reconstructing surface velocities and discharges during the flood. The analysis method consists of using Large Scale Particle Image Velocimetry and Farneback optical flow on the original clips where possible. The extreme and post-event nature of the flood requires changes to many aspects of the conventional image velocimetry workflow. Ground Control Points are identified in the videos, then geolocated or surveyed after the flood, for rectification of raw velocities from image to real-world coordinates. This conservative measure allows unlimited iterations in orthorectification. Discharges are then calculated using surveyed transects, with water surface elevations estimated from the video frames. Results from both methods show a maximum of 20% difference against estimates from from the Water Survey of Canada, proving the versatility of image velocimetry under adverse conditions. Uncertainties in one standard deviation of all four transect discharges, at a maximum of 47%, are higher than expected but still reasonable, likely due to deviations in estimating the stage directly from the videos of poor quality. Ext…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/86192
note: STREAMFLOW MONITORING IN A TIME OF CHANGE: USING IMAGE VELOCIMETRY METHODS ON CITIZEN VIDEOS OF THE NOVEMBER 2021 FLOODING IN MERRITT, BRITISH COLUMBIA by Jian Song Yang B.A.Sc., The University of British Columbia, 2020 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF APPLIED SCIENCE in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Civil Engineering) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2023 © Jian Song Yang, 2023 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled: Streamflow monitoring in a time of change: using image velocimetry methods on citizen videos of the November 2021 flooding in Merritt, British Columbia submitted by Jian Song Yang in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science in Civil Engineering Examining Committee: Dr. Steven V. Weijs, Associate professor, Department of Civil Engineering, UBC Supervisor Dr. Gregory A. Lawrence, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract The atmospheric river event in November 2021 is one of the costliest natural disasters in Canadian history. Among others, the Coldwater River in Merritt, British Columbia breached its banks on November 15th, 2021, resulting in extensive damage to the infrastructure and total evacuation of the residents. Estimating the magnitude of this flood is difficult, as it damaged the local flow monitoring station and altered the surrounding landscape. Parts of this flooding event, including the flow close to its peak, were filmed by local residents using mobile devices or drones. Though with significant perspective distortion and imprecision, they still provide valuable information on this extreme event, which would have otherwise been neglected. This study aims to apply image velocimetry techniques to some of these videos, with limited resource…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2023-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0437209
language: eng
degree discipline: Civil Engineering
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Weijs, Steven
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/86192