How Data Monitoring and Integration Can Help the Aging Dams in the US

Aging infrastructure represents a significant challenge globally, with dams and their corresponding reservoirs being no exception. In the United States, there are about 90,000 dams, most of which were constructed over the last century. Many of these structures, particularly those built before the 1970s, are nearing or have surpassed their intended 50-year lifespan. This situation places approximately 53% of all US dams in a category where they are considered aging and potentially at risk.?The consequences of dam failure are dire, including substantial financial costs due to property damage, loss of land productivity, and the tragic loss of human lives. The structural failure of the Oroville Dam spillway in California, which necessitated the evacuation of nearly 200,000 residents and led to recovery costs exceeding $1 billion, serves as a reminder of the potential consequences.??

The Challenge of Aging Dams in the US?

Safety Risks?

• Deteriorating Structural Integrity: With many U.S. dams in service for decades, erosion, seismic activities, and hydrological changes have increased susceptibility to failures, potentially resulting in catastrophic outcomes including loss of life, property damage, and environmental devastation.?
• Dam Failures: Since 2005, the rate of dam failures has steeply increased, underlining the fragility and safety risks of aging dams.?

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Environmental Impact?

• Sedimentation: Accumulation of sediment in reservoirs reduces storage capacity and impacts downstream ecosystems.?
• Biodiversity and Habitats: Dams disrupt natural river ecosystems, affecting fish migration, aquatic habitats, and water quality. The creation of reservoirs often leads to the flooding of forests, wetlands, and other natural habitats.?
• Climate Change: Extreme weather events, exacerbated by climate change, put additional strain on dam infrastructure.?

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Structural Challenges?

• Aging Infrastructure: Aging signs include higher maintenance costs, increased failure risks, and reservoir sedimentation.?
• Decommissioning: Economic and practical challenges often prevent the upgrading of aging dams, leading to decommissioning decisions.?
• Global Context: With 93% of the world’s large dams located in just 25 nations, the impacts and challenges of aging dams vary significantly across different income levels.?

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Water Resource Management?

• Operational Efficiency Decline: As dams age, their efficiency in water storage, flood control, and hydropower generation diminishes, affecting water availability for agricultural, industrial, and community needs.?
• Maintenance and Monitoring: Effective monitoring and maintenance strategies are critical to optimize water resource management and ensure the longevity of these essential structures.?

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Key Statistics and Insights?

• Global Aging Dam Scenario: By 2050, most people will live downstream of tens of thousands of large dams that are already operating at or beyond their design lives.?
• Water Storage Capacity: Large dams worldwide store an estimated 7,000 to 8,300 cubic kilometers of water, a volume capable of covering about 80% of Canada’s landmass under a meter of water.?

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The aging dams in the U.S. and globally present?multiple challenges across safety, environmental, structural, and water resource management dimensions. Addressing these requires a balanced approach that considers environmental conservation, public safety, and economic factors. Policymakers are tasked with making informed decisions on whether to upgrade, decommission, or redesign these critical infrastructures to mitigate the associated risks and ensure sustainable management.??

The Need for Advanced Monitoring?

The necessity for advanced monitoring in the management of dams is underscored by several critical factors relating to their cumulative storage capacity, age, number, and the associated economic and safety implications.?

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• Cumulative Storage Capacity: The variance in hazard potential across regions, with storage capacity disparities ranging from 50% in the North Central to 98% in states like Missouri and Colorado, highlights the need for specialized monitoring techniques. ? ?
• Dams' Age and Number: With the United States home to a significant portion of which are aged between 50 to 100 years, there's a pressing need for modern monitoring solutions. ? ?
• Economic and Safety Implications: The estimated $64 billion cost for refurbishing aging dams in the US, coupled with the fact that about 15,500 dams pose a direct threat to human safety, illustrates the economic and safety stakes involved. ? ??

Traditional monitoring methods, often limited by their inability to provide real-time data and comprehensive analysis, are increasingly inadequate for the complex challenges presented by aging dam infrastructure. The adoption of advanced monitoring solutions, incorporating real-time data analytics, sensor technologies, and predictive modeling, becomes imperative. These technologies can provide continuous insights into dam conditions, identify potential failure modes before they manifest, and guide maintenance and refurbishment efforts effectively.?

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Incorporating advanced monitoring solutions for dams is not just a matter of enhancing operational efficiency; it's a crucial step towards safeguarding communities, protecting investments, and ensuring the long-term viability of critical water infrastructure.?

Insar for dam monitoring

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technology is pivotal in dam safety assessment as it offers advanced capabilities in deformation monitoring and risk mitigation. Key points include:?

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• Deformation Monitoring: InSAR, especially the SBAS-InSAR technique, enables comprehensive monitoring of dam deformations, capturing changes across wide areas under any weather conditions. It has proven its reliability against traditional in situ monitoring methods, as evidenced by its application on the Datengxia Water Conservancy Hub, China's largest in-construction dam, through the analysis of 86 Sentinel-1 images between February 2020 and January 2023.?

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• Near Real-Time Monitoring: The technology facilitates near real-time surveillance of critical dam components such as watersheds, embankments, spillways, and slopes, enhancing budget efficiency by covering multiple components within a single satellite footprint.?

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• High-Precision Data: InSAR yields high-precision, high-density deformation data, essential for the early detection of potential risks and enabling timely preventative measures. This is bolstered by the availability of data from radar satellites like Sentinel-1 and TerraSAR-X.?

Introducing Proqio: A Solution for Modern Monitoring Needs ??

Proqio, an Infrastructure Data Intelligence Platform, represents a cutting-edge solution designed to meet the modern monitoring needs of aging dams. This platform provides real-time construction data management and geotechnical monitoring capabilities, including precise geological mapping, continuous tracking of structural convergence, and analysis of displacement trends. These features are critical for assessing dam stability, detecting potential issues early, and making informed decisions regarding dam safety and maintenance.?

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Benefits of Integrating Proqio into Dam Monitoring?

The integration of Proqio into dam monitoring enhances safety and efficiency by leveraging data integration across various technologies like geotechnical sensors, LIDAR, RADAR, InSAR, optical fibers, and GNSS and providing?real-time insights.

As a dam owner, you can make your project’s?dashboard on Proqio with the utmost simplicity. These dashboards can be customized to include a single site or multiple dam sites. Also, you can upload your project documents, ESG, and project pictures and correlate them with the available data analytic and flexible visualization options on a single screen.

Proqio's predictive analytics and early warning systems offer a proactive approach to operational resilience and risk mitigation. Furthermore, it facilitates predictive maintenance by analyzing sensor data to forecast maintenance needs, thereby allowing for timely interventions before critical issues arise.

Addressing the challenge of aging dam infrastructure is crucial for ensuring safety, preventing failures, and adapting to changing environmental conditions. Innovative monitoring solutions like Proqio play a vital role in this effort, providing real-time monitoring, data analytics, flexible visualization options, and predictive modeling to continuously assess dam health and proactively address issues. Industry leaders, policymakers, and engineers must collaborate to invest in modern monitoring technologies, establish regulatory frameworks, and raise awareness about the importance of dam safety. By prioritizing the monitoring of dam infrastructure, we can protect communities, ecosystems, and economies from potential disasters.?