The future of infrastructure: dams and the Internet of things

Engineers and owners have been monitoring dams for a long time: first with dam contracts and visual inspections, then piezometers, and with the advent of electrical techniques, with Carlson gauges, vibrating wire, MEMs, and now smart sensors, fibreoptics, and remote sensing. The core objective of measurement has always been risk management. This paper, reviews the evolution of engineering practice, trends in design, operation, and asset management, the three principal challenges to engineers working in this area, and what we need to do to adapt and endure that our work continues to be relevant, or rather that civil engineers continue to be relevant to the work that needs to be done.