Testing New Drone Technology to Measure Floodwaters

A USGS crew used new drone technology to test and evaluate new technology to measure water speed from the air without touching the water. This drone footage was taken on the Missouri River at Hermann, Missouri on March 27, 2019. Scientists compared these new method results to the conventional way of taking measurements from a boat. 

This work is a part of a national USGS effort to test and evaluate new methods for measuring floods that don't involve getting into the water. This could potentially help in future situations where crews cannot safely capture flood data due to dangerous and difficult site conditions, or event timing.