The application of acoustic Doppler instruments has expanded into various facets of catchment hydrology and water engineering. This paper not only aims to demonstrate the successful integration of the technology within catchment hydrology but also show the significant improvement in existing practices and development of more reliable techniques in determining:

• Suspended-sediment concentration;
• Bathymetry and Velocity Mapping;

The traditional methodology that was applied over the past century in defining these key parameters had number of limitations due to the available technology and resources required to perform field measurements. This often resulted in insufficient and unreliable data sets for model development and yield calculations.

This paper will also review research done by the USGS and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to identify the most effective surrogate for suspended-sediment concentration (SSC), and software that is built on the current acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) platform. This software enables the user to perform depth measurements and velocity measurements simultaneously for bathymetry and velocity mapping.