BUFFALO RIVER HYDRODYNAMICS USING ADCPS

Due to its environmental degradation including contaminated sediment, poor water quality, and lost habitat, the lower 9.2 km of the Buffalo River is a Great Lakes Area of Concern (AoC). To better understand the river's hydrodynamics, particularly the interaction between the downriver and upriver flow, horizontal and vertical Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (H-ADCP and V-ADCP, respectively) have been deployed year round at five sites since 2009 with current direction and velocity measurements collected every 15 minutes. These data were processed to ensure data integrity and enable the comparison of measurements obtained within a single year at the five sites, as well as examine year-to-year changes. In the period since deployment of the ADCPs, the river has undergone periodic navigation and environmental dredging; the latter is significantly modifying the river's cross-sectional profile. The ADCP data show high flow events related to runoff from snowmelt and high precipitation, as well as flow reversals related to Lake Erie seiches. The river also has its own periodic (~2 hour) oscillation that is best observed during times when current velocities are low and non-seiche periods. Data processing steps will be explained and examples of flow dynamics in the Buffalo River will be described.