More than 4,000 dams are constructed in Thailand for several purposes, including water supply, flood control, irrigation, and hydropower generation. Among these dams, 14 large dams are operated by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). As a dam operator, EGAT is committed to ensuring dam safety by regularly conducting dam inspections and maintenance. This paper presents the development and practical applications of the Dam Safety Remote Monitoring System (DS-RMS). The objective of DS-RMS is to enhance the EGAT’s implementation of its dam safety program in terms of dam monitoring by instrumentation to satisfy international recommendations. DS-RMS consists of five subsystems: Dam Behavior, Reservoir Operation, Earthquake Monitoring, Expert System and Public Communication. DS-RMS has been deployed at 14 large EGAT-operated dams across the country since 2016. Results show that the novel features of DS-RMS enable faster and more reliable dam safety monitoring and evaluation processes.

1. [1] The International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD), “ICOLD Constitution,” 2011, https://www.icold-cigb.org/GB/icold/institutional_files.asp [accessed September 29, 2020]
2. [2] D. D. Bradlow, A. Palmieri, and S. M. A. Salman, “Regulatory frameworks for dam safety: A comparative study,” Law, Justice, and Development Series, World Bank Publications, 2004.
3. [3] The International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD), “Organization & Mission,” https://www.icold-cigb.org/GB/icold/organization_mission.asp [accessed September 29, 2020]
4. [4] F. Farinha, E. Portela, C. Domingues, and L. Sousa, “Knowledge-based systems in civil engineering: Three case studies,” Advances in Engineering Software, Vol.36, No.11-12, pp. 729-739, 2005.
5. [5] Z. Fan, S. Jiang, and M. Zhang, “Dynamic probability evaluation of safety levels of earth-rockfill dams using Bayesian approach,” Water Science and Engineering, Vol.2, No.2, pp. 61-70, 2009.
6. [6] L. You, C. Li, X. Min, and T. Xiaolei, “Review of dam-break research of earth-rock dam combining with dam safety management,” Procedia Engineering, Vol.28, pp. 382-388, 2012.
7. [7] I. Gabriel-Martin, A. Sordo-Ward, L. Garrote, and L. Castillo, “Influence of initial reservoir level and gate failure in dam safety analysis: Stochastic approach,” J. of Hydrology, Vol.550, pp. 669-684, 2017.
8. [8] H. Ma and F. Chi, “Technical Progress on Researches for the Safety of High Concrete-Faced Rockfill Dams,” Engineering, Vol.2, No.3, pp. 332-339, 2016.
9. [9] S. Laosuwan and T. Tanchaisawat, “Seismic responses of zoned earth-fill dam by instrumentation and finite element simulation,” J. Disaster Res., Vol.11, No.6, pp. 1271-1279, 2016.
10. [10] T. Hori, A. Izumi, D. Shoda, T. Shigeoka, and H. Yoshisako, “Development of disaster prevention support system for irrigation pond,” J. Disaster Res., Vol.14, No.2, pp. 303-314, 2019.
11. [11] A. R. Khoei, S. A. Gharehbaghi, A. R. Azami, and A. P. Tabarraie, “SUT-DAM: An integrated software environment for multi-disciplinary geotechnical engineering,” Advances in Engineering Software, Vol.37, No.11, pp. 728-753, 2006.
12. [12] L. Cheng and D. Zheng, “Two online dam safety monitoring models based on the process of extracting environmental effect,” Advances in Engineering Software, Vol.57, pp. 48-56, 2013.
13. [13] H. Sato, T. Sasaki, M. Kondo, T. Kobori, A. Onodera, K. Yoshikawa, D. Sango, and Y. Morita, “Basic investigation of displacement monitoring following earthquakes based on SAR satellite data,” J. Disaster Res., Vol.12, No.3, pp. 515-525, 2017.
14. [14] J. Jeon, J. Lee, D. Shin, and H. Park, “Development of dam safety management system,” Advances in Engineering Software, Vol.40, No.8, pp. 554-563, 2009.
15. [15] B. Rashid and M. H. Rehmani, “Applications of wireless sensor networks for urban areas: A survey,” J. of Network and Computer Applications, Vol.60, pp. 192-219, 2016.
16. [16] M. Emmanuel and R. Rayudu, “Communication technologies for smart grid applications: A survey,” J. of Network and Computer Applications, Vol.74, pp. 133-148, 2016.
17. [17] A. De Sortis and P. Paoliani, “Statistical analysis and structural identification in concrete dam monitoring,” Engineering Structures, Vol.29, No.1, pp. 110-120, 2007.
18. [18] Committee on Failures and Accidents to Large Dams of the United States Committee on Large Dams, “Lessons from dam incidents,” American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)/USCOLD, 1975.
19. [19] D. Bocchiola and R. Rosso, “Safety of Italian dams in the face of flood hazard,” Advances in Water Resources, Vol.71, pp. 23-31, 2014.
20. [20] F. Lempérière, “Dams and Floods,” Engineering, Vol.3, No.1, pp. 144-149, 2017.