Tech-Levee-Watch: experimenting an integrated geophysical system for stability assessment of levees

Greta Tresoldi (1), Diego Arosio (2), Azadeh Hojat (1,3), Laura Longoni (1), Monica Papini (1) & Luigi Zanzi (1)
(1) Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy (2) Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, via Giuseppe Campi 103, 41125 Modena, Italy (3) Department of Mining Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Jomhouri boulevard, Kerman, Iran. Corresponding author e-mail: greta.tresoldi@polimi.it.

The aim of the Tech-Levee-Watch project is to combine geophysical technologies into an integrated system of diagnosismonitoring-alert related to the vulnerability of earthen levees. A first milestone of the project consists in validating a fast scanning methodology based on a proper combination of portable geophysical instruments tailored to detect possible unstable areas of the levee structures. A second milestone consists in monitoring the most critical sites by installing a low-power fully-automatic geo-resistivity meter prototype programmed for wireless daily transmission of resistivity maps. The third milestone is the calibration of a relation between resistivity values and water content values so that resistivity maps will be transformed into water content maps used to feed a simulator of the levee stability. The final milestone consists of calibrating a set of thresholds in order to define an earlywarning procedure to be delivered to administrations and citizens. This procedure can help authorities to organize maintenance of the embankments and to face critical situations that can lead to economic damages and loss of human lives.

geophysical monitoring, permanent geo-electrical monitoring, time lapse DC-resistivity, levee seepage, levee monitoring.