Paul Kinzel
Paul Kinzel is a Hydrologist with the USGS Water Resources Mission Area.
Education
M.S. in Civil Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, May 1998
B.S. in Environmental Science, State University of New York, Plattsburgh, May 1995
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 43
Grain-size distributions of bed material samples collected from the Middle Channel of the St. Clair River Delta, Michigan, November 10, 2021
The U.S. Geological Survey used a ponar sampler to collect bed material from the Middle Channel of the St. Clair River Delta on November 10, 2021. Three sediment samples were collected upstream of the artificial spawning reefs constructed in the Middle Channel and two on the reefs themselves.The bed sediment samples were dried and sieved at 1/2 phi increments to determine their grain...
Digital orthophotos and field measurements of flow velocity from the Tanana and Nenana Rivers, Alaska, from August 2021 (ver. 2.0, June 2024)
This data release includes digital orthophotos acquired from a fixed-wing aircraft and field measurements of flow velocity from the Tanana and Nenana Rivers near Nenana, Alaska, obtained on August 18 and 19, 2021. This parent data release includes links to child pages for two data sets produced during the study: 1. Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) field measurements of flow...
Topographic LiDAR surveys of rivers in Alaska, July 24-26, 2019
The U.S. Geological Survey in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) collected topographic LiDAR surveys of four rivers in Alaska from July 24-26, 2019 to support research related to remote sensing of river discharge. Data were acquired for the Matanuska, Chena, Salcha, and Tanana Rivers using a Riegl VQ-580 LiDAR. The...
Aerial images, digital elevation models, channel width maps, and river metrics along the Colorado River in Canyonlands National Park, Utah (1940 - 2018)
These data consist of rectified aerial photographs, measurements of active channel width, measurements of river and floodplain bathymetry and topography, and ancillary data. These data are specific to the corridor of the Colorado River in Canyonlands National Park between Potash, Utah and the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers near Spanish Bottom, Utah. The time period for these...
Helicopter-based videos and field measurements of flow depth and velocity from the Tanana River, Alaska, acquired on July 24, 2019
This data release includes videos acquired from a helicopter and field measurements of flow depth and velocity from the Tanana River near Nenana, Alaska, obtained on July 24, 2019. This parent data release includes links to child pages for two data sets produced during the study: 1. Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) field measurements of flow depth and velocity from the Tanana...
Data from a flume investigation using Fiber Optic Distributed Temperature Sensing (FO-DTS), U.S. Geological Survey Geomorphology and Sediment Transport Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, fall 2019
Evaluating technologies and approaches to identify the movement of fine sediment over coarser substrate has implications for monitoring the condition of habitat restoration sites. This goal motivated testing the efficacy of Fiber Optic Distributed Temperature Sensing (FO-DTS) as a technique for detecting the migration of sand bedforms over coarser bed material. Experiments were conducted...
Satellite video and field measurements of flow velocity acquired from the Tanana River in Alaska and used for particle image velocimetry (PIV)
This data release includes a video acquired from a satellite and field measurements of flow velocity from the Tanana River in Alaska that were used to derive remotely sensed estimates of surface flow velocities via particle image velocimetry (PIV). The field data were collected on July 24, 2019, in cooperation with the USGS Alaska Science Center, and the satellite video was obtained on...
Geo-referenced orthophotographs of the Snow River, Alaska, acquired September 1, 2018
This data release consists of orthophotographs of the Snow River in Alaska acquired on September 1, 2018. The orthophotographs were produced from images obtained using a Hasselblad A6D-100C 100 megapixel digital mapping camera deployed within a pod mounted on the landing gear of a Robinson R44 helicopter. Images were acquired as the helicopter transited a series of flight lines designed...
Field measurements of flow depth and optical image sequences acquired from the Salcha River, Alaska, on July 25, 2019
This data release includes field measurements of flow depth and optical image sequences acquired from the Salcha River in Alaska on July 25, 2019. These data were used to develop and test a spectrally based remote sensing technique for estimating water depth from passive optical image data. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of inferring water depths from optical...
Remotely sensed bathymetry and field measurements from the Colorado River near Lees Ferry, Arizona, September 23, 2019
To support an investigation of the feasibility of measuring river bathymetry using a polarizing lidar sensor, lidar and field measurements were collected on the Colorado River near Lees Ferry, Arizona on September 23, 2019. This parent data release includes links to child pages for the following data sets: 1) Lidar data used for mapping channel bathymetry (depth), acquired with a novel...
UAS-based remotely sensed bathymetry and field measurements from the Colorado River, near Parshall Colorado, June 13, 2019
To support an investigation of the feasibility of measuring river bathymetry using remotely sensed data acquired from a small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS), remotely sensed bathymetry and field measurements were collected from two cross-sections on the Colorado River near Parshall, CO on June 13, 2019. This parent data release includes links to child pages for the following data sets...
UAS-based remotely sensed data and field measurements from the Blue River and Colorado River, near Kremmling, Colorado, October 17-18, 2018
To support an investigation of the feasibility of measuring river bathymetry using remotely sensed data acquired from an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), several types of remotely sensed data and field measurements were collected from two cross-sections on the Blue River and two cross-sections on the Colorado River near Kremmling, Colorado, on October 17-18, 2018. This parent data release...
Filter Total Items: 62
Improving remotely sensed river bathymetry by image-averaging
Basic data on river bathymetry is critical for numerous applications in river research and management and is increasingly obtained via remote sensing, but the noisy, pixelated appearance of image‐derived depth maps can compromise subsequent analyses. We hypothesized that this noise originates from reflectance from an irregular water surface and introduced a framework for mitigating these...
Authors
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel
Field evaluation of a compact, polarizing topo‐bathymetric lidar across a range of river conditions
This paper summarizes field trials to evaluate the performance of a prototype compact topo‐bathymetric lidar sensor for surveying rivers. The sensor uses a novel polarization technique to distinguish between laser returns from the water surface and streambed and its size and weight permit deployment from a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) or a boat. Field testing was designed to...
Authors
Paul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter, Paul E. Grams
Inferring surface flow velocities in sediment-laden Alaskan rivers from optical image sequences acquired from a helicopter
The remote, inaccessible location of many rivers in Alaska creates a compelling need for remote sensing approaches to streamflow monitoring. Motivated by this objective, we evaluated the potential to infer flow velocities from optical image sequences acquired from a helicopter deployed above two large, sediment-laden rivers. Rather than artificial seeding, we used an ensemble correlation...
Authors
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel
Remote sensing of tracer dye concentrations to support dispersion studies in river channels
In river channels the flow field influences the dispersion of biota, contaminants, and other suspended or dissolved materials. Insight on patterns and rates of dispersion can be gained by injecting a pulse of visible dye and observing spatial and temporal variations in dye concentration as the pulse moves downstream. We evaluated the potential of passive optical remote sensing to enhance...
Authors
Carl J. Legleiter, Richard R. McDonald, Jonathan M. Nelson, Paul J. Kinzel, Ryan L. Perroy, Donghae Baek, Il Won Seo
sUAS-based remote sensing of river discharge using thermal particle image velocimetry and bathymetric lidar
This paper describes a non-contact methodology for computing river discharge based on data collected from small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS). The approach is complete in that both surface velocity and channel geometry are measured directly under field conditions. The technique does not require introducing artificial tracer particles for computing surface velocity, nor does it rely upon...
Authors
Paul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter
Near-field remote sensing of Alaskan Rivers
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Geomorphology and Sediment Transport Laboratory (GSTL), in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), acquired remotely sensed data from several Alaskan rivers in 2017 and 2018 with the goal of developing a methodology for measuring streamflow from a helicopter. CRREL operates a custom...
Authors
Paul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter, Jonathan M. Nelson, Jeffrey S. Conaway, Adam L. LeWinter, Peter Gadomski, Dominic Filiano
Remote sensing of river flow in Alaska—New technology to improve safety and expand coverage of USGS streamgaging
The U.S. Geological Survey monitors water level (water surface elevation relative to an arbitrary datum) and measures streamflow in Alaska rivers to compute and compile river flow records for use by water resource planners, engineers, and land managers to design infrastructure, manage floodplains, and protect life, property, and aquatic resources. Alaska has over 800,000 miles of rivers...
Authors
Jeffrey S. Conaway, John R. Eggleston, Carl J. Legleiter, John Jones, Paul J. Kinzel, John W. Fulton
New methods for predicting and measuring dispersion in rivers
To develop a better predictive tool for dispersion in rivers over a range of temporal and spatial scales, our group has developed a simple Lagrangian model that is applicable for a wide range of coordinate systems and flow modeling methodologies. The approach allows dispersion computations for a large suite of discretizations, model dimensions (1-, 2-, or 3-dimensional), spatial and...
Authors
Jonathan M. Nelson, Richard R. McDonald, Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel, Travis Terrell Ramos, Yutaka Higashi, Il Won Seo, Donghae Baek, Du Han Lee, Yonguk Ryu
Sampling strategies to improve passive optical remote sensing of river bathymetry
Passive optical remote sensing of river bathymetry involves establishing a relation between depth and reflectance that can be applied throughout an image to produce a depth map. Building upon the Optimal Band Ratio Analysis (OBRA) framework, we introduce sampling strategies for constructing calibration data sets that lead to strong relationships between an image-derived quantity and...
Authors
Carl J. Legleiter, Brandon Overstreet, Paul J. Kinzel
Remote measurement of river discharge using thermal particle image velocimetry (PIV) and various sources of bathymetric information
Although river discharge is a fundamental hydrologic quantity, conventional methods of streamgaging are impractical, expensive, and potentially dangerous in remote locations. This study evaluated the potential for measuring discharge via various forms of remote sensing, primarily thermal imaging of flow velocities but also spectrally-based depth retrieval from passive optical image data...
Authors
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel, Jonathan M. Nelson
Fine-scale habitat preference of green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) within three spawning locations in the Sacramento River, California
Vast sections of the Sacramento River have been listed as critical habitat by the National Marine Fisheries Service for green sturgeon spawning (Acipenser medirostris), yet spawning is known to occur at only a few specific locations. This study reveals the range of physical habitat variables selected by adult green sturgeon during their spawning period. We integrated fine-scale fish...
Authors
Megan T. Wyman, Michael V. Thomas, Richard R. McDonald, Alexander R. Hearn, Ryan D. Batt, Eric G. Chapman, Paul J. Kinzel, J. Toby Minear, Ethan A. Mora, Jonathan M. Nelson, Matthew D. Pagel, A. Peter Klimley
Using remotely sensed data to estimate river characteristics including water-surface velocity and discharge
This paper describes a project combining field studies and analyses directed at providing an assessment of the accuracy of remotely sensed methods for determining river characteristics such as velocity and discharge. In particular, we describe a remote sensing method for surface velocities using mid-wave thermal camera videography combined with image analysis. One of the critical...
Authors
Jonathan M. Nelson, Paul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter, Richard R. McDonald, Brandon Overstreet, Jeffrey S. Conaway
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 43
Grain-size distributions of bed material samples collected from the Middle Channel of the St. Clair River Delta, Michigan, November 10, 2021
The U.S. Geological Survey used a ponar sampler to collect bed material from the Middle Channel of the St. Clair River Delta on November 10, 2021. Three sediment samples were collected upstream of the artificial spawning reefs constructed in the Middle Channel and two on the reefs themselves.The bed sediment samples were dried and sieved at 1/2 phi increments to determine their grain...
Digital orthophotos and field measurements of flow velocity from the Tanana and Nenana Rivers, Alaska, from August 2021 (ver. 2.0, June 2024)
This data release includes digital orthophotos acquired from a fixed-wing aircraft and field measurements of flow velocity from the Tanana and Nenana Rivers near Nenana, Alaska, obtained on August 18 and 19, 2021. This parent data release includes links to child pages for two data sets produced during the study: 1. Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) field measurements of flow...
Topographic LiDAR surveys of rivers in Alaska, July 24-26, 2019
The U.S. Geological Survey in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) collected topographic LiDAR surveys of four rivers in Alaska from July 24-26, 2019 to support research related to remote sensing of river discharge. Data were acquired for the Matanuska, Chena, Salcha, and Tanana Rivers using a Riegl VQ-580 LiDAR. The...
Aerial images, digital elevation models, channel width maps, and river metrics along the Colorado River in Canyonlands National Park, Utah (1940 - 2018)
These data consist of rectified aerial photographs, measurements of active channel width, measurements of river and floodplain bathymetry and topography, and ancillary data. These data are specific to the corridor of the Colorado River in Canyonlands National Park between Potash, Utah and the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers near Spanish Bottom, Utah. The time period for these...
Helicopter-based videos and field measurements of flow depth and velocity from the Tanana River, Alaska, acquired on July 24, 2019
This data release includes videos acquired from a helicopter and field measurements of flow depth and velocity from the Tanana River near Nenana, Alaska, obtained on July 24, 2019. This parent data release includes links to child pages for two data sets produced during the study: 1. Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) field measurements of flow depth and velocity from the Tanana...
Data from a flume investigation using Fiber Optic Distributed Temperature Sensing (FO-DTS), U.S. Geological Survey Geomorphology and Sediment Transport Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, fall 2019
Evaluating technologies and approaches to identify the movement of fine sediment over coarser substrate has implications for monitoring the condition of habitat restoration sites. This goal motivated testing the efficacy of Fiber Optic Distributed Temperature Sensing (FO-DTS) as a technique for detecting the migration of sand bedforms over coarser bed material. Experiments were conducted...
Satellite video and field measurements of flow velocity acquired from the Tanana River in Alaska and used for particle image velocimetry (PIV)
This data release includes a video acquired from a satellite and field measurements of flow velocity from the Tanana River in Alaska that were used to derive remotely sensed estimates of surface flow velocities via particle image velocimetry (PIV). The field data were collected on July 24, 2019, in cooperation with the USGS Alaska Science Center, and the satellite video was obtained on...
Geo-referenced orthophotographs of the Snow River, Alaska, acquired September 1, 2018
This data release consists of orthophotographs of the Snow River in Alaska acquired on September 1, 2018. The orthophotographs were produced from images obtained using a Hasselblad A6D-100C 100 megapixel digital mapping camera deployed within a pod mounted on the landing gear of a Robinson R44 helicopter. Images were acquired as the helicopter transited a series of flight lines designed...
Field measurements of flow depth and optical image sequences acquired from the Salcha River, Alaska, on July 25, 2019
This data release includes field measurements of flow depth and optical image sequences acquired from the Salcha River in Alaska on July 25, 2019. These data were used to develop and test a spectrally based remote sensing technique for estimating water depth from passive optical image data. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of inferring water depths from optical...
Remotely sensed bathymetry and field measurements from the Colorado River near Lees Ferry, Arizona, September 23, 2019
To support an investigation of the feasibility of measuring river bathymetry using a polarizing lidar sensor, lidar and field measurements were collected on the Colorado River near Lees Ferry, Arizona on September 23, 2019. This parent data release includes links to child pages for the following data sets: 1) Lidar data used for mapping channel bathymetry (depth), acquired with a novel...
UAS-based remotely sensed bathymetry and field measurements from the Colorado River, near Parshall Colorado, June 13, 2019
To support an investigation of the feasibility of measuring river bathymetry using remotely sensed data acquired from a small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS), remotely sensed bathymetry and field measurements were collected from two cross-sections on the Colorado River near Parshall, CO on June 13, 2019. This parent data release includes links to child pages for the following data sets...
UAS-based remotely sensed data and field measurements from the Blue River and Colorado River, near Kremmling, Colorado, October 17-18, 2018
To support an investigation of the feasibility of measuring river bathymetry using remotely sensed data acquired from an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), several types of remotely sensed data and field measurements were collected from two cross-sections on the Blue River and two cross-sections on the Colorado River near Kremmling, Colorado, on October 17-18, 2018. This parent data release...
Filter Total Items: 62
Improving remotely sensed river bathymetry by image-averaging
Basic data on river bathymetry is critical for numerous applications in river research and management and is increasingly obtained via remote sensing, but the noisy, pixelated appearance of image‐derived depth maps can compromise subsequent analyses. We hypothesized that this noise originates from reflectance from an irregular water surface and introduced a framework for mitigating these...
Authors
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel
Field evaluation of a compact, polarizing topo‐bathymetric lidar across a range of river conditions
This paper summarizes field trials to evaluate the performance of a prototype compact topo‐bathymetric lidar sensor for surveying rivers. The sensor uses a novel polarization technique to distinguish between laser returns from the water surface and streambed and its size and weight permit deployment from a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) or a boat. Field testing was designed to...
Authors
Paul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter, Paul E. Grams
Inferring surface flow velocities in sediment-laden Alaskan rivers from optical image sequences acquired from a helicopter
The remote, inaccessible location of many rivers in Alaska creates a compelling need for remote sensing approaches to streamflow monitoring. Motivated by this objective, we evaluated the potential to infer flow velocities from optical image sequences acquired from a helicopter deployed above two large, sediment-laden rivers. Rather than artificial seeding, we used an ensemble correlation...
Authors
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel
Remote sensing of tracer dye concentrations to support dispersion studies in river channels
In river channels the flow field influences the dispersion of biota, contaminants, and other suspended or dissolved materials. Insight on patterns and rates of dispersion can be gained by injecting a pulse of visible dye and observing spatial and temporal variations in dye concentration as the pulse moves downstream. We evaluated the potential of passive optical remote sensing to enhance...
Authors
Carl J. Legleiter, Richard R. McDonald, Jonathan M. Nelson, Paul J. Kinzel, Ryan L. Perroy, Donghae Baek, Il Won Seo
sUAS-based remote sensing of river discharge using thermal particle image velocimetry and bathymetric lidar
This paper describes a non-contact methodology for computing river discharge based on data collected from small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS). The approach is complete in that both surface velocity and channel geometry are measured directly under field conditions. The technique does not require introducing artificial tracer particles for computing surface velocity, nor does it rely upon...
Authors
Paul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter
Near-field remote sensing of Alaskan Rivers
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Geomorphology and Sediment Transport Laboratory (GSTL), in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), acquired remotely sensed data from several Alaskan rivers in 2017 and 2018 with the goal of developing a methodology for measuring streamflow from a helicopter. CRREL operates a custom...
Authors
Paul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter, Jonathan M. Nelson, Jeffrey S. Conaway, Adam L. LeWinter, Peter Gadomski, Dominic Filiano
Remote sensing of river flow in Alaska—New technology to improve safety and expand coverage of USGS streamgaging
The U.S. Geological Survey monitors water level (water surface elevation relative to an arbitrary datum) and measures streamflow in Alaska rivers to compute and compile river flow records for use by water resource planners, engineers, and land managers to design infrastructure, manage floodplains, and protect life, property, and aquatic resources. Alaska has over 800,000 miles of rivers...
Authors
Jeffrey S. Conaway, John R. Eggleston, Carl J. Legleiter, John Jones, Paul J. Kinzel, John W. Fulton
New methods for predicting and measuring dispersion in rivers
To develop a better predictive tool for dispersion in rivers over a range of temporal and spatial scales, our group has developed a simple Lagrangian model that is applicable for a wide range of coordinate systems and flow modeling methodologies. The approach allows dispersion computations for a large suite of discretizations, model dimensions (1-, 2-, or 3-dimensional), spatial and...
Authors
Jonathan M. Nelson, Richard R. McDonald, Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel, Travis Terrell Ramos, Yutaka Higashi, Il Won Seo, Donghae Baek, Du Han Lee, Yonguk Ryu
Sampling strategies to improve passive optical remote sensing of river bathymetry
Passive optical remote sensing of river bathymetry involves establishing a relation between depth and reflectance that can be applied throughout an image to produce a depth map. Building upon the Optimal Band Ratio Analysis (OBRA) framework, we introduce sampling strategies for constructing calibration data sets that lead to strong relationships between an image-derived quantity and...
Authors
Carl J. Legleiter, Brandon Overstreet, Paul J. Kinzel
Remote measurement of river discharge using thermal particle image velocimetry (PIV) and various sources of bathymetric information
Although river discharge is a fundamental hydrologic quantity, conventional methods of streamgaging are impractical, expensive, and potentially dangerous in remote locations. This study evaluated the potential for measuring discharge via various forms of remote sensing, primarily thermal imaging of flow velocities but also spectrally-based depth retrieval from passive optical image data...
Authors
Carl J. Legleiter, Paul J. Kinzel, Jonathan M. Nelson
Fine-scale habitat preference of green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) within three spawning locations in the Sacramento River, California
Vast sections of the Sacramento River have been listed as critical habitat by the National Marine Fisheries Service for green sturgeon spawning (Acipenser medirostris), yet spawning is known to occur at only a few specific locations. This study reveals the range of physical habitat variables selected by adult green sturgeon during their spawning period. We integrated fine-scale fish...
Authors
Megan T. Wyman, Michael V. Thomas, Richard R. McDonald, Alexander R. Hearn, Ryan D. Batt, Eric G. Chapman, Paul J. Kinzel, J. Toby Minear, Ethan A. Mora, Jonathan M. Nelson, Matthew D. Pagel, A. Peter Klimley
Using remotely sensed data to estimate river characteristics including water-surface velocity and discharge
This paper describes a project combining field studies and analyses directed at providing an assessment of the accuracy of remotely sensed methods for determining river characteristics such as velocity and discharge. In particular, we describe a remote sensing method for surface velocities using mid-wave thermal camera videography combined with image analysis. One of the critical...
Authors
Jonathan M. Nelson, Paul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter, Richard R. McDonald, Brandon Overstreet, Jeffrey S. Conaway