Flume

Flume is a term with several distinct meanings in different fields. It may refer to a natural watercourse, an engineering device for measuring flow, a software project in the Apache ecosystem, or an Australian electronic musician who performs under the stage name Flume.

In natural geography, a flume is a narrow, deep channel or gorge through which water flows. Flumes can form where streams carve rock over time, creating steep walls and a lined bed. In some contexts, a flume can also be a man-made trough used to transport water along a slope.

In civil engineering and hydrology, a flume is an artificial channel built to measure or convey water. The most common type is the Parshall flume; other designs include venturi and broad-crested flumes. Measurements rely on a known relationship between water depth at a designated point and discharge.

Apache Flume is an open-source distributed service designed to collect, aggregate, and move large amounts of log data. It uses a flow-based architecture with sources, channels, and sinks, and is commonly used to ingest data into systems such as Hadoop, HDFS, HBase, or Elasticsearch.

Flume is the stage name of Australian electronic musician Harley Streten, who released the self-titled debut album Flume in 2012. The project is known for blending electronic music with hip hop and experimental sounds; the follow-up album Skin appeared in 2016.