Dam Sustainability Assessment and Flood Volume Estimation Using Remote Sensing and GIS

In recent years, increasing number of unprecedented rainfall events around the world brought about devastating floods that have been a challenge for urban planners and decision makers. Numerous studies addressed these floods to climate change and investigated its trends at different time scales. In face of many uncertainties caused by environmental phenomena, considering current magnitude of extreme events is a crucial step towards preventing disasters. In this study, Dez dam, which is an arch dam on the Dez River in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, Iran, is selected to study if it could be operated more efficiently to store a larger fraction of the feeding river flow. Remote sensing provides means to monitor hydrological and environmental changes over large areas. In addition, it enables researchers to detect vulnerabilities in civil infrastructures. Satellite images are used to estimate reservoir area of the dam and then to estimate the height and volume of the water behind the dam. The results show a spike in the height and volume of the water behind the dam to the 94% of the dam's capacity, which can endanger the dam itself, and downstream urban infrastructure. Therefore, better flood management strategies are required to minimize the risk and destructions created by these flood events. An online Cyber-Physical System should be in place to monitor the dam condition and integrate the data to the runoff storm water in downstream to get a fully functional prediction and prevention framework for extreme floods.