Geospatial AI for Dam Monitoring

For dam operators and regulators, managing aging assets is the day-to-day reality of business. Most dams were built decades ago and many are reaching the end of their initial design life. Almost three quarters of the more than 90,000 dams located in the US, for instance, will be more than 50 years old within the next five years.

Dams and embankments are different from many other classes of aging industrial asset though. Given the obvious and far-reaching consequences associated with dam failure and the potential release of millions of tonnes of water, failure of these structures is without doubt an extreme risk event. It’s not surprising that owners and operators of dams and embankment structures are increasingly focused on dam safety and effective risk assessment as part of a thorough mitigation strategy.

The reality is that operational budgets are increasingly constrained across many asset classes. This puts pressure on the owners who need to maintain the integrity of every dam and hydraulic structure and the regulators who need to inspect them, but without massive increases in costs.

Rezatec’s Dam Monitoring product remotely and cost-effectively tracks the condition of dams, and new urban developments in their inundation zones – at scale. It combines satellite with additional data feeds, and fuses this data with advanced AI algorithms. Its insights determine unusual millimetric changes in terrain motion, vegetation growth and moisture, and they determine urban change risks in the flood plain.