Water Conservancy Solutions – Safety Monitoring of Reservoir Dams
Water Conservancy Solutions – Safety Monitoring of Reservoir Dams
As an important component of the water conservancy project system, small and medium-sized reservoirs’ safe operation is directly tied to vital livelihood issues including flood control and disaster reduction, water resource allocation and ecological environment protection. Reservoir monitoring, as a crucial approach to tracking reservoir safety conditions, serves as the prerequisite for scientific regulation and safe operation of reservoirs. Accordingly, continuously improving the automated safety monitoring capacity of reservoirs and reinforcing reservoir safety with technological advances has become a key task in current water conservancy management. Installing intelligent monitoring equipment at critical reservoir locations enables real-time tracking of seepage and detection of subtle structural deformation, furnishing precise data for the safety monitoring and assessment of reservoir projects. This effectively underpins reservoirs’ core functions in flood retention, peak clipping and peak staggering, and reliably safeguards people’s lives and property as well as the sustainable development of the social economy.
Reservoir Safety
The monitoring system is an intelligent management framework integrating data collection, transmission, analysis and early warning. For instance, the dam safety monitoring system of CHC Navigation adopts and innovatively applies emerging technologies including phase interferometry, edge computing, low-power technology, Internet of Things and cloud computing. It integrates equipment such as GNSS devices, synthetic aperture radars, unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned surface vessels and intelligent sensors to realize real-time monitoring of numerous monitoring items including dam surface displacement, internal displacement, phreatic line, rainfall, stress and strain, cracks, sluice gates and hydraulic structures. It ensures effective data transmission via diversified communication modes such as 4G, Beidou, ORA and optical fiber, and delivers multi-project management, visual data analysis, professional data calculation analysis and remote online equipment management through a multi-source data fusion monitoring platform for dams, providing users with convenient and efficient tools for project safety management.
In fact, a complete reservoir safety monitoring system consists of a reservoir dam safety monitoring system, an automatic rainfall and water regime monitoring system, a video monitoring system, a database, an application support platform and a business application system. Among them, the reservoir dam safety monitoring system covers deformation monitoring, seepage pressure monitoring, seepage flow monitoring and other components,while the automatic rainfall and water regime monitoring system includes meteorological monitoring, water level monitoring, flow monitoring as well as water quality monitoring.
In terms of the safety monitoring system for reservoir dams, deformation monitoring serves as the core component of reservoir dam safety monitoring. Adopting advanced equipment such as integrated GNSS monitoring terminals, it conducts real-time monitoring of dam deformations including displacement and settlement as well as variations in structural inclination angles. Meanwhile, it can track internal stress and strain inside the dam to accurately evaluate the structural stability of the dam body. This article focuses on elaborating the detailed applications of the H7 integrated power-supplied GNSS monitoring station and Shoujing Z8 in deformation monitoring.
For equipment selection, the principles of reliability, durability, practicality and accuracy are followed, and the Huace H7 all-in-one integrated power-supplied GNSS monitoring station is adopted for the reservoir surface deformation monitoring system. Developed by Huace Navigation specifically for monitoring applications, the H7 is an integrated Beidou displacement monitoring station featuring variable-frequency sensing, multi-parameter measurement and ultra-low power consumption. Designed as an all-in-one unit with integrated solar panels and built-in batteries, the entire device weighs less than 3 kilograms, drastically boosting on-site installation efficiency by over 30% compared with conventional equipment. Equipped with innovative power control technology and embedded system sleep-wakeup technology, the monitoring station delivers robust processing capacity without compromising power consumption performance, enabling an adaptive trigger-tracking monitoring mode. It can sustain continuous operation for more than 90 days without sunlight exposure, reliably adapting to diverse harsh environments and enabling full detection of potential disaster risks.
The H7 is equipped with a newly upgraded five-star sixteen-frequency board card and high-sensitivity MEMS module. By adopting a multi-source data fusion algorithm and supporting front-end calculation, it delivers more accurate monitoring data and faster response. Meanwhile, its anti-interference capability and environmental adaptability have been greatly improved. It can operate stably amid harsh weather or complex electromagnetic environments to guarantee reliable data.
In terms of the automatic hydrological and rainfall monitoring system, meteorological monitoring mainly tracks meteorological conditions around dams, including parameters such as temperature, humidity and wind speed. Analysis of such meteorological data enables accurate assessment of the dam's operating environment, provides references for reservoir regulation and management, and guarantees the safe operation of reservoirs under varying meteorological conditions. Water level monitoring adopts radar water level gauges, which track real-time fluctuations of reservoir water levels to keep water levels within safe limits and effectively avert safety hazards triggered by over-limit water levels. Featuring high measurement precision, rapid response and strong immunity to external environmental interference, such equipment delivers dependable data for reservoir water level management. Flow monitoring applies radar ultrasonic flowmeters to measure inflow and outflow volumes of reservoirs. Real-time tracking of reservoir water volume changes supplies precise data for reservoir regulation and operational administration, allowing managers to promptly adjust operational schemes in response to water volume shifts so as to maintain water balance and safe operation of reservoirs. Water quality monitoring relies on water quality analyzers to continuously measure reservoir water quality indicators including dissolved oxygen, pH value, turbidity and ammonia nitrogen. This practice not only preserves the reservoir’s ecological environment but also safeguards the safety of domestic and industrial water supply for local residents, facilitating rational utilization and protection of reservoir water resources.
Build a comprehensive business application system for reservoirs, which consists of an integrated database, an application support platform, an operation management system, a mobile application system and a background management system. The system integrates all links of reservoir management, realizes data sharing and business collaboration, provides robust technical support for comprehensive management and scientific decision-making of reservoirs, and advances the intelligent and information-based development of reservoir management. In conclusion, through the coordinated operation of each subsystem, the intelligent monitoring system for small and medium-sized reservoirs enables comprehensive and real-time monitoring and management of reservoir safety conditions. With continuous advances in science and technology, the system will be further optimized and upgraded to deliver stronger safeguards for the safe operation of small and medium-sized reservoirs and play an increasingly vital role in flood control and disaster reduction, water resource management as well as ecological environment protection.