Dealing with data: innovation in monitoring and operation and maintenance of dams

Owners of large reservoirs often have to comply with statutory monitoring and maintenance regimes as well as the day-to-day operation and maintenance (O&M) of the dam, pipework, valves and appurtenant structures. These requirements can generate a large amount of data that are important for many different people involved in the smooth running of the asset, and which need to be accessed in different formats, locations and times, for different purposes. The consequences of ‘missing’ important data can range from something as simple as a broken access gate, to something as serious as a catastrophic dam breach. This paper describes research into advanced data interaction techniques such as augmented reality and near field communication, and how these were applied to existing data in a reservoir O&M manual for a reservoir in the UK, in order to develop the ‘Reservoir App’ – a smarter way of generating, accessing and using reservoir data.