Reducing Flood Risk using Computer System for Monitoring River Embankments

In order to learn about the phenomena occurring in flood embankment under the influence of external factors, including the increasing water level in the river during floods, a Computer System for Monitoring River Embankment (ISMOP) was developed using an experimental flood embankment. The project was carried out by a consortium consisting of AGH University of Science and Technology departments (Computer Science, Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology, Geoinformatics and Applied Computer Science and two companies (NEOSENTIO and SWECO Hydroprojekt Kraków) in co-operation with the Czernichów Community Council.

An experimental flood embankment was built with two parallel sections with a length of 150 m and a height of 4.5 m, connected by a meandering, creating a reservoir that can be filled with water. For the construction of the embankment, different types of soils were used in all the five sections. Inside the flood embankment 1300 sensors are placed, including sensors for temperature, pore pressure, vertical displacements, as well as inclinometers. Also fiber optic strands, capable of measuring the temperature of the flood embankment on the upstream side, are located inside the experimental embankment [ismop.pl].

Together with the real experiments, numerical modelling using the Itasca Flac 2D 7.0 was performed in order to describe the impact of water pressing on the flood embankment and the impact of increasing and decreasing reservoir water level on the phenomena that occur within the embankment.

The results of modelling compared with the real sensor data allowed the evaluation of the current and future state of the embankment. Based on the data measured by the sensors and data received during the numerical modelling, a group of algorithms that allowed detection of anomaly phenomena was developed.