Managementand Display of Dam Surveillance Data

 Report No WSAA 21

April 1991

SYNOPSIS

Damsurveillance is vital for the early detection of possible dam failures orproblems so that remedial action can be taken. In the past the vast amounts ofdata involved have been recorded on paper and then laboriously plottedmanually. The Urban Water Research Association of Australia provided a grant tothe Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, in cooperation with theDepartment of Surveying and Land Information of the University of Melbourne,for a programme of research into the development of a computerised datamanagement system with particular emphasis being placed on the use ofthree-dimensional computer graphics for the improved presentation of dam data. Thefirst stage of this project was a tour of nine organisations in Australia andNew Zealand to ascertain the current status of the computerisation of damsurveillance data. Following these visits a database structure was developedfor the storage of surveillance data on MMBW’s Thomson Dam. Allied to thedatabase was a three-dimensional computer model of Thomson Dam containing theinternal structure of the dam and the positions of survey monitoring points andsurveillance instrumentation. Linkages between the graphic elements depictingthese points and instruments and the records relating to them in the databasecould be used to extract data from the database by placing the screen cursorover the graphical element representing the desired instrument. Various methodswere used to display these data in a number of three-dimensional forms. Thesehave included combining different types of data into single displays. Displayssuch as those produced should make it possible to obtain a better understandingof the overall behaviour of the structure under surveillance.

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