{"id":395,"date":"2026-10-01T16:56:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T16:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/groups.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/trap\/site\/wordpress\/?p=395"},"modified":"2026-10-06T13:57:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T13:57:53","slug":"new-hydrometric-station-for-better-trapping-plastics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/groups.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/trap\/site\/wordpress\/new-hydrometric-station-for-better-trapping-plastics\/","title":{"rendered":"New hydrometric station at Sorraia River"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

[Portugu\u00eas abaixo]<\/p>\n

The main ambition of TRAP \u2013 Freeing Our Rivers From Plastics<\/strong> is to remove as much plastic from rivers as possible, using natural barriers and mobilizing communities.<\/p>\n

Plastic fragments such as bottles, shreds of clothes or unassorted fragments from industrial or agricultural usage are often found in river corridors or floodplains. During floods they are picked up as water levels raise, they may be trapped in trees or bushes along riverbanks, they may be deposited downstream when waters recede or they may be transported all the way to the ocean.<\/p>\n

To understand transport, trapping and deposition of plastics, its temporal cycle and specific dynamics, we must understand the river, its flood and drought cycles and its hydraulics.<\/p>\n

We will learn about flood-induced fluxes of plastics by monitoring TRAP\u2019s rivers, before trying to extrapolate general patterns to other rivers. Sorraia is TRAP\u2019s river in Portugal.<\/p>\n

Monitoring Sorraia is thus very important to TRAP. This is why we have just installed a new hydrometric station at Ponte Caleira, in Cou\u00e7o, in its upstream reach.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The new station will measure level and surface velocity, which can be empirically related to the mean cross-section velocity. The discharge can then be estimated by integrating the velocity over the flow area.<\/p>\n

These observations, obtained in real time, will be assimilated into hydrodynamic models, allowing a sharper, more accurate forecast of flood \u2013 more accurate extension of inundation, time of inundation and period under water. And, by better understanding the water fluxes, these observations have also a positive impact in the characterization of the hotspots where plastics are trapped or deposited.<\/p>\n

The resulting data will be made available to C\u00e2mara Municipal de Coruche<\/a> (the local government), APA \u2013 Ag\u00eancia Portuguesa do Ambiente<\/a> (the national water resources authority) and Associa\u00e7\u00e3o de Regantes e Benefici\u00e1rios do Vale do Sorraia<\/a>, which owns the Ponte Caleira structure.<\/p>\n

C\u00e2mara Municipal de Coruche will also ensure the maintenance of the monitored river cross-section \u2013 an essential contribution because reliable discharge calculations depend on preserving and periodically verifying its geometry.<\/p>\n

This collaboration between research institutions, local government, the national water authority and those who manage the Sorraia\u2019s hydraulic infrastructure is fundamental for transforming measurements into shared knowledge and, ultimately, into better-informed river management.<\/p>\n

Today, we celebrate this achievement. By the end of the project, we will make available guidelines to design hotspots to trap and retain plastics in any river or estuary<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

———— “” ———————<\/p>\n

A principal ambi\u00e7\u00e3o do TRAP \u2013 Libertando Os Nossos Rios de Pl\u00e1sticos<\/strong> \u00e9 remover a maior quantidade de pl\u00e1stico poss\u00edvel dos rios, recorrendo a barreiras naturais e mobilizando as comunidades.<\/p>\n

Fragmentos de pl\u00e1stico, como garrafas, peda\u00e7os de roupa ou fragmentos indiferenciados de uso industrial ou agr\u00edcola, s\u00e3o frequentemente encontrados nos corredores fluviais ou nas plan\u00edcies de inunda\u00e7\u00e3o. Durante as cheias, s\u00e3o arrastados \u00e0 medida que os n\u00edveis da \u00e1gua sobem, podendo ficar retidos em \u00e1rvores ou arbustos ao longo das margens, ser depositados a jusante quando as \u00e1guas recuam ou ser transportados at\u00e9 ao oceano.<\/p>\n

Para compreender o transporte, a reten\u00e7\u00e3o e a deposi\u00e7\u00e3o de pl\u00e1sticos, o seu ciclo temporal e a sua din\u00e2mica espec\u00edfica, precisamos de compreender o rio, os seus ciclos de cheias e secas e a sua hidr\u00e1ulica.<\/p>\n

Iremos aprender sobre os fluxos de pl\u00e1sticos induzidos pelas cheias monitorizando os rios do projeto TRAP, antes de tentarmos extrapolar padr\u00f5es gerais para outros rios. O Sorraia \u00e9 o rio do TRAP em Portugal.<\/p>\n

A monitoriza\u00e7\u00e3o do Sorraia \u00e9, assim, muito importante para o TRAP. Foi por isso que acab\u00e1mos de instalar uma nova esta\u00e7\u00e3o hidrom\u00e9trica em Ponte Caleira, no Cou\u00e7o, no seu tro\u00e7o a montante.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A nova esta\u00e7\u00e3o ir\u00e1 medir o n\u00edvel e a velocidade de superf\u00edcie, os quais podem ser empiricamente relacionados com a velocidade m\u00e9dia na sec\u00e7\u00e3o transversal. O caudal pode ent\u00e3o ser estimado integrando a velocidade ao longo da \u00e1rea de escoamento.<\/p>\n

Estas observa\u00e7\u00f5es, obtidas em tempo real, ser\u00e3o assimiladas em modelos hidrodin\u00e2micos, permitindo uma previs\u00e3o de cheias mais exata e rigorosa \u2013 maior precis\u00e3o na extens\u00e3o da inunda\u00e7\u00e3o, no tempo de in\u00edcio da inunda\u00e7\u00e3o ou no per\u00edodo de submers\u00e3o. E, ao compreendermos melhor os fluxos de \u00e1gua, estas observa\u00e7\u00f5es t\u00eam tamb\u00e9m um impacto positivo na caracteriza\u00e7\u00e3o dos pontos cr\u00edticos (hotspots<\/em>) onde os pl\u00e1sticos ficam retidos ou se depositam.<\/p>\n

Os dados resultantes ser\u00e3o disponibilizados \u00e0 C\u00e2mara Municipal de Coruche<\/a> (a autarquia local), \u00e0 APA \u2013 Ag\u00eancia Portuguesa do Ambiente<\/a> (a autoridade nacional de recursos h\u00eddricos) e \u00e0 Associa\u00e7\u00e3o de Regantes e Benefici\u00e1rios do Vale do Sorraia<\/a>, que \u00e9 propriet\u00e1ria da estrutura de Ponte Caleira.<\/p>\n

A C\u00e2mara Municipal de Coruche assegurar\u00e1 tamb\u00e9m a manuten\u00e7\u00e3o da sec\u00e7\u00e3o transversal do rio \u2013 um contributo essencial, pois o c\u00e1lculo fi\u00e1vel dos caudais depende da preserva\u00e7\u00e3o e da verifica\u00e7\u00e3o peri\u00f3dica da geometria da sec\u00e7\u00e3o monitorizda.<\/p>\n

Esta colabora\u00e7\u00e3o entre institui\u00e7\u00f5es de investiga\u00e7\u00e3o, o poder local, a autoridade nacional da \u00e1gua e aqueles que gerem a infraestrutura hidr\u00e1ulica do Sorraia \u00e9 fundamental para transformar as medi\u00e7\u00f5es em conhecimento partilhado e, em \u00faltima an\u00e1lise, em melhor gest\u00e3o fluvial.<\/p>\n

Hoje, celebramos esta conquista. At\u00e9 ao final do projeto, iremos disponibilizar diretrizes para conceber zonas de reten\u00e7\u00e3o (hotspots<\/em>) capazes de capturar e reter pl\u00e1sticos em qualquer rio ou estu\u00e1rio<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Portugu\u00eas abaixo] The main ambition of TRAP \u2013 Freeing Our Rivers From Plastics is to remove as much plastic from rivers as possible, using natural barriers and mobilizing communities. Plastic fragments such as bottles, shreds of clothes or unassorted fragments from industrial or agricultural usage are often found in river corridors or floodplains. During floods […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-portugal","category-transnational"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/trap\/site\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/trap\/site\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/trap\/site\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/trap\/site\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/trap\/site\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/groups.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/trap\/site\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412,"href":"https:\/\/groups.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/trap\/site\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395\/revisions\/412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/trap\/site\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/groups.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/trap\/site\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/trap\/site\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/groups.tecnico.ulisboa.pt\/trap\/site\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}