Critical water management infrastructure such as hydroelectric dams, reservoirs, river and flood control systems, are extremely vulnerable to climate driven impacts. Increased erosion, extreme fluctuations in water levels, changes in vegetation and prolonged drying during hot weather, and more frequent and severe storm events, can combine to exploit existing weaknesses that may exist in the dam design or construction. Additionally, most of the worlds ~59,000 big dams (including hydroelectric) were constructed between 1930 and 1970, and now pose an increasing risk due to the degradation of their condition.
Impacts
- Urban flooding
- Dam and reservoir facility instability and failure
- Increased stress on water management systems and operations
Our Solution
The Insight Platform provides a real-time structural and environmental monitoring capability for hydroelectric water dams, reservoirs and flood control systems. Increasingly this form of structural health monitoring for critical national infrastructure is essential to minimise the risks of infrastructure failure and to avoid the numerous potential negative impacts.
The Insight Platform has been deployed for critical water infrastructure monitoring in the United Kingdom, for example, at the Kielder Reservoir and Forest Park. Kielder is a sophisticated ecosystem of agriculture, industry, utility, tourism, and wildlife. Set in a 647 square km of the border region of Northumberland, it boasts the largest man-made reservoir in Europe with a shoreline of 43 km, including a dam measuring 1.2 km in length. The dam controls up to 20 billion litres of water and serves a large amount of Tyneside and Teesside with fresh water.
The Insight Platform can also be utilized to facilitate broader monitoring objectives for governments and enterprises involved in water infrastructure operation and management.
