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Monitoring Dam Performance: Instrumentation and Measurements

About this reference

This is an original, open technical reference on dam-performance monitoring, written in plain engineering language and adapted from the structure and subject scope of Monitoring Dam Performance: Instrumentation and Measurements — ASCE Manual of Practice No. 135 (2019), prepared by the ASCE/EWRI Task Committee on Instrumentation and Monitoring of Dams and Levees. It is not a reproduction of the copyrighted ASCE text. It is provided for education and field use, and every dam is unique: the guidance here is meant to build engineering judgment, not to set minimum standards.

Dam safety depends on knowing how a dam actually behaves. Monitoring is the discipline of measuring that behavior — through both human observation and instruments — and turning those measurements into timely, defensible decisions. This reference walks through the full lifecycle of a monitoring program: from defining what could go wrong, to selecting and installing instruments, to acquiring, evaluating, and acting on data.

Scope of this reference

This book covers the fundamentals and current state of practice for monitoring the performance of dams (and, by extension, their appurtenant structures, foundations, and reservoirs). It is organized into the following chapters:

# Chapter What it covers
1 Introduction: Purpose, Scope, and Organization Why monitoring matters; how this reference is organized
2 Dam Performance and Potential Failure Modes How dams fail and what signs precede failure
3 Monitoring Philosophy: Visual Surveillance and Instrumentation The two pillars of monitoring and how they complement each other
4 Planning a Dam Monitoring Program A structured process for defining what, where, and why to monitor
5 Instrument Families for Dam Monitoring Survey, geotechnical, hydrologic, and structural sensors at a glance
6 Piezometers and Pore-Pressure Monitoring Saturation, installation, and reading pore pressure
7 Seepage, Leakage, and Phreatic-Surface Monitoring Quantifying and interpreting seepage
8 Deformation Monitoring: Survey and Geotechnical Sensors Survey monuments, inclinometers, extensometers, tiltmeters
9 Automated, Remote, and Real-Time Monitoring Systems Dataloggers, telemetry, thresholds, and alarms
10 Installation, Operation, and Maintenance Getting reliable data over the life of the instrument
11 Data Acquisition, Management, and Databases Frequencies, validation, and data systems
12 Data Evaluation, Presentation, and Interpretation Plots, baselines, and separating signal from noise
13 Performance Evaluation and Decision Making From anomaly to action
14 Case Histories Lessons from real monitoring programs

How to use this reference

  • Start with Chapter 2 and Chapter 4. Failure modes and a structured plan are the foundation of every good monitoring program.
  • Link to the rest of the knowledge base. The Instrument Families chapter cross-references the Dunnicliff and FHWA manuals for detailed installation procedures.
  • Ask the GTI Doctor. The AI assistant can answer monitoring questions from the wider corpus.

A note on units and terminology

Both SI and US customary units appear in practice; this reference uses the unit set most common to each topic and states conversions where they matter. "Performance" means the observed behavior of the dam compared with its expected behavior.

Safety first. Instrument data supports, but never replaces, qualified visual inspection and the engineering judgment of a qualified dam engineer or the owner's dam safety program.

Featured Video (Dam Safety Institute — ASDSO / USSD): Dam Inspections and Performance Monitoring for Embankment and Concrete Dams.

Complementary Practical Field Resources from RST Instruments & Measurand (Terra Insights)