Description
Time-lapse imagery of streams and rivers provides new qualitative insights into hydrologic conditions at stream gauges, especially when site visits are biased toward baseflow or fair-weather conditions. Imagery from fixed, ground-based cameras is also rich in quantitative information that can improve streamflow monitoring. In this study, we automated the analysis of time-lapse imagery from a single camera at a single location, then built and tested machine learning models using programmatically calculable scalar image features to fill data gaps in stream gauge records. Features were extracted from 40,000+ daylight images taken at one-hour intervals from 2012 to 2019. The results show it is possible to extract features from images taken with the downstream facing camera to build machine learning models that produce accurate stage and discharge predictions.