Engineering summary
After Edenville, Sanford and Oroville, QuakeLogic's SMARTDAM platform shows how continuous, AI-assisted sensor monitoring and earthquake early warning can catch dam deterioration early.
In short: Aging dam monitoring helps prevent disasters by continuously collecting data from accelerometers, tiltmeters, piezometers, strain gauges, seepage monitors and weather stations, then automatically evaluating it against thresholds and alerting operators with action plans before deterioration becomes failure. QuakeLogic's SMARTDAM platform does this in the cloud with AI-assisted assessment, and its earthquake early warning can trigger actions such as opening spillways before shaking arrives.
Devastating climate change, including killer heat waves and severe flooding, adversely affects the infrastructures our communities rely on. Dams in particular become increasingly more vulnerable to climate change due to aging. Rapidly rising water levels and frequent floods add extra stress to dams, reservoirs and waterways, pushing them to their design limits. A failure to upgrade dams in response to deterioration in structural health may result in a catastrophic impact on the people and environment.
The most recent examples are the failed Edenville and Sanford Dams in Midland, Michigan due to rapidly rising waters after days of heavy rain. The collapsed Edenville Dam, constructed in 1924, was rated in unsatisfactory condition in 2018, while the Sanford Dam, which was built in 1925, was given a fair condition rating by the State.
In 2017, major flooding from the damaged Oroville Dam in Northern California forced the evacuation of nearly 200,000 Californians. The Oroville Dam was completed in 1968, toward the end of the golden era of dam construction. This was a wakeup call for owners of aging dams across the country, as climate change continues to add stress to these structures.
California has additional challenges due to active earthquake faults, including the Hayward and San Andreas faults, which scientists predict are due for a large earthquake. Among the dams now considered to be at risk are the Anderson Dam and the Calaveras Dam, both close to fault lines in Silicon Valley. According to the NY Times, California’s most troubled large dam is at Lake Isabella. This dam was built on the Kern River near Bakersfield by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950’s on what was thought to be an inactive fault. However, this fault has been active since then.
Another major threat to dams is scouring. Numerous aging dams have experienced severe erosion of their unlined spillways. This erosion can lead to damage and even failure of dams and consequently can threaten public safety, properties, infrastructure and the wider local environment.
There are a number of unfortunate examples of dams failing due to earthquakes, flooding or scouring where early signs of deficiencies might have been detected if a proper structural health monitoring (SHM) system had been in place.
Introducing SMARTDAM
QuakeLogic is the only company using a cloud-based, AI-powered technology platform to perform continuous, autonomous assessments using data from sensors on the dam structure.
QuakeLogic’s Sensor data Management, Assessment and Repository Technology (SMART) platform transforms a dangerous, aging dam into a SMART dam able to alert officials to critical deterioration. It also significantly reduces needed search and inspection efforts following any seismic or other impact event such as settlement, scouring, etc.
The SMART platform integrates manually and digitally read sensor recordings into a fully automated unified monitoring system. It facilitates the acquisition and analysis of critical sensor data needed by the dam operators for proper operation and maintenance, and most importantly, for the safety assessment of the dam. It routinely collects, organizes and evaluates sensor data, and sends immediate notifications with ACTION PLANS upon exceedance of programmed thresholds, generating PDF reports regularly and on-demand.
The SMART platform is a cutting-edge system that works with various types of sensors such as accelerometers, tiltmeters, potentiometers, strain gauges, thermocouples, weather stations, piezometers and seepage monitors. Comprehensive analytic information is visible in real-time on the mobile-friendly dashboard, providing proof and PEACE OF MIND that a dam is performing as expected.
In addition to our SMART platform, our proprietary earthquake early warning (EEW) alerts provide a window of opportunity for action before earthquake shaking begins at the site. It can even trigger automated actions such as opening spillways, closing roads, etc. – when every second counts.
Easy-to-understand, engineering-quality information on the real-time health of the dam together with the ACTION PLAN support operators to make informed decisions. Whether planning maintenance activities, or prioritizing critical response actions, QuakeLogic has you covered.
QuakeLogic’s monitoring system instantly detects any issue that could impact the structural integrity of the dam, allowing corrective measures to be implemented and avoiding a potential future disaster.
For details, contact us at info@quakelogic.net
Key Takeaways
- Edenville Dam (built 1924, rated unsatisfactory in 2018) and Sanford Dam (1925) failed in Midland, Michigan after days of heavy rain.
- The 2017 Oroville Dam crisis forced nearly 200,000 Californians to evacuate; the dam was completed in 1968.
- California dams near active faults include Anderson and Calaveras in Silicon Valley and Lake Isabella, built on a fault once thought inactive.
- SMART integrates accelerometers, tiltmeters, potentiometers, strain gauges, thermocouples, weather stations, piezometers and seepage monitors into one dashboard.
- Threshold exceedance triggers immediate notifications with action plans and PDF reports; EEW alerts can automate spillway opening or road closures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Aging dams are more vulnerable because climate-driven heat waves, intense rainfall and frequent floods push reservoirs and spillways to their design limits at the same time that decades of deterioration have weakened the structures. Rapidly rising water overloaded the 1924 Edenville Dam and 1925 Sanford Dam in Michigan, and the 2017 Oroville crisis in California showed that even large dams from the 1960s are at risk.
Dam structural health monitoring combines accelerometers for vibration and earthquake response, tiltmeters and potentiometers for movement and settlement, strain gauges for stress in concrete and steel, thermocouples for temperature, piezometers for pore-water pressure, seepage monitors for leakage, and weather stations for rainfall and reservoir context. QuakeLogic's SMART platform ingests both digitally and manually read sensors into one automated system.
SMARTDAM continuously collects, organizes and evaluates sensor data in the cloud using AI-assisted assessment. When any reading exceeds a programmed threshold, the platform sends an immediate notification together with a predefined action plan, and it generates PDF reports on a schedule or on demand. A mobile-friendly dashboard shows real-time analytics, giving operators engineering-quality evidence that the dam is, or is not, performing as expected.
Yes. QuakeLogic's earthquake early warning alerts arrive before strong shaking reaches the dam site, creating a window for protective action. The alert can trigger automated responses such as opening spillway gates or closing roads downstream, and it tells operators immediately that shaking is imminent. Combined with post-event sensor assessment, this reduces the search and inspection effort after an earthquake.
Dams cited as at risk near California's Hayward and San Andreas faults include Anderson Dam and Calaveras Dam, both close to fault lines in Silicon Valley. Lake Isabella Dam on the Kern River near Bakersfield, built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s on a fault then believed inactive, has been described as the state's most troubled large dam because that fault has since proven active.
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Topic cluster
Related engineering knowledge areas
- Earthquake EngineeringSeismic hazard, ground motion, structural response, fragility, and resilience guidance.
- Structural Health MonitoringMonitoring for bridges, buildings, dams, tunnels, industrial facilities, and resilient infrastructure.
- Earthquake Early WarningOn-site detection, alerting workflows, seismic switches, and critical infrastructure warning systems.
- Seismic SensorsSeismometers, accelerometers, geophones, sensor selection, calibration, and field deployment.
Definitions and references
Terms, standards, and source cues
- seismic hazard: related to Earthquake Engineering in this QuakeLogic knowledge cluster.
- ground motion: related to Earthquake Engineering in this QuakeLogic knowledge cluster.
- SHM: related to Structural Health Monitoring in this QuakeLogic knowledge cluster.
- damage detection: related to Structural Health Monitoring in this QuakeLogic knowledge cluster.
- earthquake early warning: related to Earthquake Early Warning in this QuakeLogic knowledge cluster.
- seismic switch: related to Earthquake Early Warning in this QuakeLogic knowledge cluster.
- seismometers: related to Seismic Sensors in this QuakeLogic knowledge cluster.
- accelerometers: related to Seismic Sensors in this QuakeLogic knowledge cluster.
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