Dams represent a high-risk potential for downstream life and property.
Dams and large water reservoirs are often constructed in valleys which are usually areas with high seismicity in fact they exist because active erosion is taking place. Furthermore, the reservoirs themselves can trigger seismic events due to the fact that the weight of the water produces a change in the stress levels of the rock under the reservoirs and the pore pressure decreases its effective strength. Aging and structural changes must to be taken into account too.
For these reasons dams should be monitored with high performance seismic instrumentation and monitoring systems to provide information on the health status of the structure and send alerts in the case of potential issues.

Lunitek has supplied and installed systems for monitoring dams in Italy under the commission and control of the Italian Civil Defence.
FOTO: diga Fiastra, diga Fiastra4, diga liscione1

The monitoring system of Fiastra Dam consist of the following elements:
– 3 Poseidon Lights (datalogger legacy version, now ATLAS)
– 3 Biaxial true force balance accelerometers LTFB160
– 1 Triaxial true force balance accelerometer LTFB160
– 3 Power supply units
– 1 Router for the remote communication with central server in Rome
– 2 WiFi repeaters to extend the WiFi coverage signal.