A Vision for a New Approach to Smart Earthen Embankments for Resilient Communities

Embankments, levees, and dikes are earthen protection structures built to protect industrial, commercial, residential, and agricultural regions from flooding. The inadequate maintenance of such structures can lead to failures, resulting in significant property damage, loss of farmland, and loss of life. Thus, effective monitoring of earthen structures is essential for risk management. This paper presents the envisioned design of a Smart Earthen Embankment system, battery-less sensors, and associated networking technologies, as well as data analytics and machine learning methods for the predictive modeling of structural health based on the collected data. In particular, the aim of this paper is to describe the vision of the system design, substantiate its effectiveness, and investigate the physical foundations of its feasibility through experimental study. The paper establishes the conceptual feasibility of a system that is capable of supporting spatially continuous, autonomous, and multiparameter Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of earthen flood barriers. Deployment of the envisioned system will aid in addressing some of the increased dangers caused by climate change.