Dam Safety Performance Monitoring and Data Analysis Management - Best Practices

Dr. Ralph Peck, an eminent dam engineer, stated at the International Commission on Large Dams 20th Congress, Beijing, China, in September 2000 that “monitoring of every dam is mandatory, because dams change with age and may develop defects. There is no substitute for systematic and intelligent surveillance.” Over many decades, instruments have been incorporated into dams for various reasons, including verifying theoretical assumptions concerning soil mechanics, monitoring response of dams to construction activities, monitoring the ongoing performance of dams, investigating causes of performance deficiencies, and monitoring the effectiveness of remedial work. According to Dr. Peck and others, every instrument installed in a dam should be designed to answer a specific technical question pertinent to the safe performance of the dam. John Dunnicliff, a world renowned expert on instrumentation, echoed this belief and added the requirement that a successful instrumentation program must follow a systematic process from concept to execution. Failure to execute each step of the systematic process can compromise the value of the instrumentation program.
To this end, best practices are needed to obtain the most value from instrumentation programs. These practices can be developed initially by understanding how a specific dam can potentially develop problems or defects. Adequate training, surveillance, monitoring, and management programs can be developed for proper data collection, instrument assessment, data analysis, and conclusions to dam performance assessment.
The objective of this project is to document best practices to develop and implement an effective performance monitoring program for dam surveillance, inspection, instrumentation needs and maintenance, data collection, data management, data analysis, and data interpretation. This includes identifying the responsibilities of management and the key components for managing the overall performance monitoring program, along with proper coordination and communications between and among the responsible parties.