PLT33 - Smart Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance of Dams Using A-DInSAR and Geohazard Integration

Abstract Description: The detection and monitoring of dam displacements play a crucial role in the investigation on the structural conditions of the considered infrastructure, requiring, if necessary, appropriate management operations since the early stages. The early detection of a dam instability should represent a key factor of a dam maintenance plan and could lead to the structural stabilization of the asset. Dam displacements can be attributed to various factors, such as its composition, the consolidation of the embankment materials and forcing factors. Over the years, the increasing use of SAR satellite techniques has allowed the monitoring not only of ground deformations caused by natural phenomena, but also of infrastructures and processes linked to human activity. For this reason, the remote sensing techniques have become a powerful tool for the detection and monitoring of the deformations that could also affect a dam.

The application of the Advanced Differential Interferometry SAR (A-DInSAR) aims at generating and analysing both the deformation maps and the time series. This multi-temporal interferometric analysis is performed by using the well-known Persistent Scatterers Interferometry (PSI) technique, whose employment allows the generation of PS (Persistent Scatterers) deformation maps. This multi-interferometric analysis also generates displacement time-series, to analyse the deformative trend of each PS.

The comparison and integration between the retrieved measurements and the geohazard layers is key to understand the causes of the displacements detected on the considered dam. For this reason, we have developed an innovative and semi-automatic decision-making supporting system for asset management and predictive maintenance purposes, taking advantages of innovative data-fusion algorithms and satellite Earth Observation technologies. This service, called SGAM (Smart Geotechnical Asset Management), focuses on the risks related to structures and infrastructures, analysing their interaction with the local geological and environmental context, by automatically evaluating the direct or potential future interferences with geohazards (e.g., landslides, floods, earthquakes). The service aims to support decision-makers in defining and prioritizing the maintenance operations based on the asset vulnerability and loss scenarios. This goal is reached through the integration of the big amount of archived and newly acquired EO data, the available worldwide and regional geodatabases, the information collected by field surveys or other ground-based monitoring systems.
The performed multidisciplinary analyses are fundamental to understand the stability or instability conditions of the investigated dam and, therefore, to better assess the related risks and, if necessary, make appropriate management activities since the early stages.