Capability Statement

Smart Levees
Real-time monitoring of dikes, levees and dams

With increasing economical investments in flood prone areas, flood risk management is a hot topic in many deltas and lowlying areas around the world. When dikes or levees are built, a choice has to be made as to what water levels the dike will protect against. But when a high water level is imminent, decision makers and crisis managers will need to know the real strength of the dikes to prevent both excessive risk to the population and unnecessary and expensive evacuation. In response to these challenges, Deltares is developing technology and knowledge for building Smart Levee systems: dikes, levees or dams remotely monitored through in situ or remote sensors for early warning of impending dike failure. The philosophy of our approach is to combine state of the art sensor technology with both geotechnical expertise and numerical dike stability software through an open and flexible IT architecture. Incorporating the latest developments in both sensor technology and geo-engineering has been designed into our approach.

IJkdijk sliding experiment, post-failure. 2008.

Keywords: sensors, monitoring, IJkdijk

A sensor for every dike? A smart levee system has to be tailor made for the local situation. Relevant factors include flood risk, available funds, geology, availability of technology, power supply, availability of a communication infrastructure etcetera. We have developed several building blocks to be used as a starting point and our ongoing R&D efforts ensure that you have access to the latest technology. The first consideration is: do all dikes or levees in a dike system have to be equipped with sensors? There is no general answer and will depend largely on the accepted flood risk. The prioritization of which dikes to monitor first can be made based on actual flood risk (including the possible consequences of dike breach at each location), geotechnical strength of the dikes (finding the weak links) and available funds for the smart levee project. Deltares has extensive experience in large scale flood risk mapping and can assist in the prioritization. Experience with over 10 different in situ sensor systems From 2007 onwards, a series of unique experiments have been taking place in the Netherlands. In a 2 kilometer long by 200 meter wide polder, we have the opportunity to build full-scale - 8 meters high and 100 meters wide - dikes and bring them to failure. Deltares is one of the organisers of these IJkdijk tests and is responsible for all geotechnical design and evaluation. IJkdijk is Dutch for calibration dike. Weve allowed sensor technology providers to install their monitoring systems in the levees. In this way, the performance of over 10 sensor systems could be evaluated before, during and after dike failure. In the 2008 experiment for the failure mode sliding, some sensor systems detected the weak failure plane almost a day before actual failure took place. In September 2009, a new series of full-scale piping tests has been performed, again with the cooperation of different sensor technology providers. These experiments have given us unique experience with different systems, not just from the hardware point of view but also on the possibility to combine these systems with numerical forecasting models. Monitoring from above In addition to in situ monitoring, Deltares is involved in projects in which remote sensing is used to investigate anomalies or changes in the water defence structures. Examples include the use of InSar radar technology for long-term monitoring of levee deformation behaviour or thermal imaging for detecting seepage. We are aware of the (im)possibilities of the different technologies and can advise you on their use and interpretation. At this moment, these technologies are less suitable for crisis management due to the time needed for data processing. At the same time, we are working with leading partners in remote sensing in R&D programs on improving the uses of remote sensing for crisis management, e.g. through combining different sensing techniques. Automated dike stability software For those sensor readings that have to be fed to a numerical model in order to give a forecast or nowcast of dike stability, we have fully automated our dike stability models MStab, MPiping and our overtopping models. This means, that a new sensor reading of (for example) pore water pressures in the dike can automatically produce a new sliding calculation and a new river water level can be instantly translated into piping forecast. Projects 2006: Real-time sliding stability monitoring and forecasting, Gendt, the Netherlands 2007: IJkdijk full scale experiment Overtopping, Bellingwedde, the Netherlands 2008: IJkdijk full scale experiment Sliding stability, Bellingwedde, the Netherlands 2009: IJkdijk full scale experiments Piping, Bellingwedde, the Netherlands 2009: LiveDike, long term operational coastal dike monitoring, Eems harbour, the Netherlands Related expertise Dike Analysis Modules: operational forecasting and automated evaluation of dike strength Levee Patroller: the levee inspection training simulator

Deltares
Innovative solutions for water and subsurface issues Jos Maccabiani Stieltjesweg 2, P.O. Box 177 T +31 (88) 33 57 446 2600 MH E jos.maccabiani@deltares.nl info@deltares.nl www.deltares.nl