Dam Safety and Instrumentation-A Case Study

Rajkumar Prasad, R S Sehra, Vipin Kumar, Mahabir Dixit

Dam Safety, Dam, Design, Instrumentation, Monitoring, Planning, Reliability, Surveillance, Dam health

Safety of Dam infrastructure is important to avoid adverse transboundary impacts and destructive consequences on lives, property and environment. It is emphasized that the safety of the dam should be maintained throughout its different life phases i.e. design phase; construction phase; first filling phase; and operation phase, with some detail of the types of readings to be taken during the last one.

Dam surveillance and instrumentation provide data for monitoring the safe performance during the various phases of a dam’s life including design; construction; first filling of the reservoir; evaluation of long-term, in-service performance (normal operation); and to manage or predict unsatisfactory performance. The use of instrumentation to monitor the performance of dams is widely accepted as a prudent component of a successful dam safety program to manage and minimize the risks to the public posed by dams.

The paper aims at highlighting the importance of geotechnical instrumentation as the tool for dam safety study which provides the information necessary to evaluate the performance of dams and gives early warnings of changes that could endanger their safety.