As we face the rising water levels of our seas and rivers, the strategic and proactive management of our dikes and barriers becomes increasingly vital. To optimise asset management Compass developed a revolutionary monitoring solution.

The challenge

Assetmangers, engineers and y of regional water authorites need reliable and real time insight into the performance and structural integrity of the structures to determine and prioritize what is needed for the security of our lands and communities. But current dike monitoring is faced with several challenges:

• Local measurements for an elongated structure
• Point measurements are hard to correlate
• Often there is no power available on location
• Failing mechanisms have a lot of variables
• There are a great number of local variants in soil and contextual conditions and age

Our solution

Studies show that the number one predictor of dike failure is temperature followed by strain. Temperature fluctuations indicate waterflow which induce soil movement like piping or even shear.

We developed and patented a structure in which fiber optic cables measure strain as well as temperature on every meter of the dike. This  allows you implement a monitoring network that has several technical advantages:

• It is easy to cover large distance
• It has a low energy consumption
• No energy needed on sensing location (passive sensing)
• Versatile applications
• It is intrinsically safe

Your value

This provides you with the insight needed to diagnose dike conditions in real time, compare scenario’s, anticipate the evolution of assets and associated risks and optimise your decision making and asset maintenance accordingly.