Visualization requirements of engineers for risk assessment of embankment dams

Varun Kasireddy,Nur Sila Gulgec,Burcu Akinci,Semiha Ergan

doi:10.1186/s40327-014-0014-y

Varun Kasireddy, Nur Sila Gulgec + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40327-014-0014-y

Copy DOI

Abstract

Abstract Background Aging infrastructure in the US has gained quite a bit of attention in the past decade. Being one type of a critical infrastructure, embankment dams in the US require significant investment to upgrade the deteriorated parts. Due to limited budgets, understanding the behavior of structures over time through risk assessment is essential to prioritize dams. During the risk assessment for embankment dams, engineers utilize current and historical data from the design, construction, and operation phases of these structures. The challenge is that during risk assessment, various engineers from different disciplines (e.g., geotechnical, hydraulics) come together, and how they would like to visualize the available datasets changes based on the discipline-specific analyses they need to perform. The objective of this research study is to understand the discipline-specific visualization needs of engineers from US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) who are involved in risk assessment of embankment dams when they deal with large set of data accumulated since the inception of dams. Methods The requirements were identified through a three-phased research approach including interviews with engineers who are regularly involved in risk assessment processes, a card game and review of standards and published work on risk assessment of embankment dams. Results This paper provides the findings of research conducted with engineers coming from different disciplines within USACE. Findings comprise discipline-specific visualization requirements of engineers for viewing large datasets, containing static data (e.g. design information) and time-series data (e.g. piezometer data, monument measurements etc.), accumulated since the inception of dams. Conclusions The findings suggest that the visualization of the dam layout, components and geometry within 3D settings overlaid with sensor data (which could be queried based on engineers’ discipline-specific needs) and data analytics results provide a better flexibility to engineers to understand the risk associated with potential failure modes.

Highlights

Aging infrastructure in the US has gained quite a bit of attention in the past decade
The findings are presented in terms of what has been identified as visualization requirements through the requirements elicitation approaches and how the findings were implemented in the functional prototype
For internal erosion risk assessment in embankment dams, engineers from several disciplines require dam information to be viewed from different perspectives

Summary

Introduction

Aging infrastructure in the US has gained quite a bit of attention in the past decade. Examples include daily monitoring, which is performed on the daily data collected on the dam to detect changes in readings overtime; periodic inspection (PI), which is conducted every five years in a detailed manner including historical data, and periodic assessment (PA), which is conducted every ten years with interdisciplinary parties. During these sessions, the multi-disciplinary team of engineers has access to different types of information, such as design, construction and operation information and accesses them through digital or hard copy documents. Some of the studies might be grouped such as multi-dimensional visualization, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and real-time monitoring applications

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion