The discharge of a river at a point is the volume of water that passes through a cross-section of the river in one second. It is measured in cubic metres per second, m3/s.
示例
Example 8.5 (A gauging)
In the stream of the figure, the five strips, each 2m wide, have areas 2×0.4=0.8, 2.0, 2.8, 2.2 and 1.0m2: the cross-section is 8.8m2. Their discharges are 0.3×0.8=0.24, 0.6×2.0=1.20, 0.8×2.8=2.24, 0.7×2.2=1.54 and 0.4×1.0=0.40m3/s, so the stream carries Q≈5.6m3/s. The mean velocity is 5.62/8.8≈0.64m/s, less than the 0.8m/s of the middle of the stream.