Management and Display of Dam Surveillance Data

This report was produced for the Urban Water Research Association of Australia, a now discontinued research program.

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Report no. UWRAA 21

April 1991

Synopsis

Dam surveillance is vital for the early detection of possible dam failures or problems so that remedial action can be taken. In the past the vast amounts of data involved have been recorded on paper and then laboriously plotted manually.

The Urban Water Research Association of Australia provided a grant to the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, in cooperation with the Department of Surveying and Land Information of the University of Melbourne, for a programme of research into the development of a computerised data management system with particular emphasis being placed on the use of three-dimensional computer graphics for the improved presentation of dam data.

The first stage of this project was a tour of nine organisations in Australia and New Zealand to ascertain the current status of the computerisation of dam surveillance data. Following these visits a database structure was developed for the storage of surveillance data on MMBW’s Thomson Dam.

Allied to the database was a three-dimensional computer model of Thomson Dam containing the internal structure of the dam and the positions of survey monitoring points and surveillance instrumentation.

Linkages between the graphic elements depicting these points and instruments and the records relating to them in the database could be used to extract data from the database by placing the screen cursor over the graphical element representing the desired instrument.

Various methods were used to display these data in a number of three-dimensional forms. These have included combining different types of data into single displays. Displays such as those produced should make it possible to obtain a better understanding of the overall behaviour of the structure under surveillance.

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