Updated 12 Sep 2007

Planting a new oakwood in Dorset

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Measuring water levels

    Water levels are measured at 4 points on Bear Mead,
    with a scale drawn on a length of plastic pipe.

    The points of measurement are:

  • River Stour, Field #1, West (upstream), Range: 100-400 cms.
  • River Stour, Field #1, East (downstream), Range: 100-400 cms.
  • Mill Stream, Field #3, near small bridge, Range: 0-100 cms.
  • Bob's Well, Field #5, near the centre, Range: 0-300 cms.

    Requirements for the scale are as follows:

  • Resistant to bright sun bleaching scale.
  • Resistant to water flow bending, rotating and lifting pipe.
  • Resistant to mud and growth darkening the scale.
  • Easily read from a distance in poor light.
  • Easily and cheaply made, erected, removed and replaced.
  • Location reachable in waders at likely replacement dates.
  • Scale units of cms, common arbitrary zero at Bob's well.

    Best solutions found from use since August 2003:

  • Use Marley waste pipe 50mm x 3M, from B & Q.
  • Paint scale with oil-based paint, use red (dots) and green (numerals).
    Use black marker pen for lines (1-4 and 6-9)
  • Scale is calibrated by inserting a spacer under the pipe.
  • Hammer a length of scaffolding firmly into the river bottom.
    50mm pipe fits over the scaffolding fairly tightly.

    Results
    of the measurements are placed on the Flooding on Dorset Stour website:

  • Graphs and numbers are given for most days since 4 Aug 2003.

    Some problems:

  • A rare summer near-flood on 4 Jul 07, strong current dislodged weed and wrapped it round the River West pipe, enlarging the cross-section and enabling the current to snap the pipe. High river-levels prevented replacement for nearly two months.

River East pipe, with problem algae in summer

       Pipe lengths, metres

  River    River    Bob's    Mill
  West     East     Well     Stream
  |  |4.0  |  |4.0  |  |3.0
  |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |3.9  |  |3.9  |  |2.9
  |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |3.8  |  |3.8  |  |2.8
  |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |     |  |0.9
  |  |     |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |     |  |0.8
  |  |     |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |1.2  |  |1.2  |  |0.2  |  |0.2
  |  |     |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |1.1  |  |1.1  |  |0.1  |  |0.1
  |  |     |  |     |  |     |  |
  |  |1.0  |  |1.0  |  |0.0  |  |0

  spacer   spacer   none     none
  |  |     |  |0.2
  |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |0.1
  |  |     |  |
  |  |     |  |0.0

Compiled, formatted, hyperlinked, encoded, and copyright © 2007, John Palmer, All Rights Reserved.