A pilot project for the province's first integrated "Sky-Land-Water-Structure" smart levee system is about to commence construction. This initiative leverages five-dimensional sensing to enable the levee to perform self-diagnosis of potential hazards.
Recently, the implementation plan for the Smart Levee Pilot Construction Project on the Dashengguan Section of the Yangtze River in Nanjing passed review. On-site construction is scheduled to begin shortly, marking the official start of the construction phase for Jiangsu Province's first smart levee pilot project. This project achieves integrated, all-element monitoring encompassing sky, land, water, and the structure itself.
Commissioned by the Nanjing Water Authority's Yangtze River Watercourse Management Office and led by the Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, the project is funded by provincial water resources development funds. It utilizes advanced technologies, including Beidou satellite GNSS displacement monitoring, unmanned inspection equipment, and AI learning, to equip the Yangtze River levee with an all-weather "long-distance vision" and an analytical "intelligent brain."
Upon completion, the traditional levee will be transformed into a "digital entity" capable of precise perception and early warning, achieving a fundamental shift from relying on "human patrols" to "intelligent protection." This project is at the forefront of intelligent levee construction nationally and holds promise for replication and promotion across the province, thereby strengthening the intelligent defense line for Yangtze River protection.
The pilot site is the Dashengguan section levee on the main stem of the Yangtze River in Nanjing, an area with complex conditions. This section features a narrow river beach in front of the levee, steep underwater topography, and a deep channel close to the bank. Riverbed scouring significantly impacts levee safety, making this section a top priority for flood control efforts in the Nanjing segment of the Yangtze.
"The first step in giving the levee a 'smart brain' is enabling it to perceive its surroundings and its own condition comprehensively," explained Li Jun, Deputy Director of the Material Structure Research Institute at the Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute and project leader. The project establishes a five-dimensional "Sky-Land-Water-Structure" monitoring system, providing clear oversight of conditions in the water, on land, in the air, in space, and within the levee structure itself. This approach breaks from the traditional method of only inspecting the levee body and incorporates the monitoring of underwater erosion, a critical hazard, into its core scope.
As the "aerial core" of the five-dimensional monitoring, multi-system integrated GNSS displacement monitoring technology, including Beidou, acts as a remote "watchman" for the levee. It can monitor minute displacements, such as settlement and planar deformation,全天候 and unattended. It also enables real-time data transmission at centimeter-level accuracy, with post-processing precision reaching sub-millimeter levels (2-5 mm), detecting even extremely subtle deformations.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UUAVs) serve as agile "patrols," capturing photos for visual inspection during the day and using infrared sensors to measure temperature at night. Should seepage occur, causing abnormal surface temperatures, UUAVs can promptly identify potential leakage hazards. On the ground, video surveillance monitors for human-induced damage, while underground monitoring points track soil deformation. An intelligent termite monitoring system specifically guards against termite infestations, common on the landward side of levees, comprehensively securing the ground and subsurface defenses.
Unmanned surface vessels (USVs) act as specialized "surveyors" underwater. Equipped with sonar, they map the underwater topography with centimeter-level precision, specifically monitoring scouring in the nearshore deep channel areas adjacent to the levee. Combined with data from underwater erosion meters, they accurately track erosion and scouring trends along the underwater levee slope.
Furthermore, within the levee body itself, piezometers installed in boreholes function like "medical scanners," directly sensing internal seepage conditions. Their data can be correlated with other monitoring information, forming a complete evidence chain linking "underwater scouring – surface deformation – structural response," leaving no place for hazards to hide.
If the five-dimensional sensing system is the smart levee's "eyes," then the data fusion and intelligent analysis system is its "intelligent brain." Dr. Liu Yongtao, a key technical expert on the project, stated that the most challenging aspect is not the installation of numerous sensors and devices, but rather transforming the multi-source, heterogeneous data they collect into clear "warning signals" that can directly assess risk.
"Devices like satellites, UUAVs, USVs, and ground monitors collect data at different frequencies and in different formats. For instance, rainfall and water level data might be reported every 2 hours, USVs might survey only once a week, and video surveillance generates massive amounts of image data," Dr. Liu explained further. The R&D team acts like a "chef," integrating these diverse "ingredients" into a cohesive "meal" by establishing unified processing standards. Using self-developed mathematical models, the system generates primary, secondary, and tertiary warnings for the levee's condition, ultimately outputting a clear comprehensive safety rating. This allows levee managers to understand the overall risk at a glance.
To make the data more intuitive, the project is also developing a digital twin visualization platform. This creates a digital replica of the physical levee on a computer, where all monitoring data is displayed in real-time, essentially creating a "digital mirror" of the levee. Managers no longer need to sift through photos, cross-check data points manually, or frequently visit the site. By simply opening the platform on a screen, they can accurately identify risk locations and areas requiring focused inspection. This represents a leap from merely "collecting data" to being able to "diagnose problems," enabling the levee to effectively "speak" and "self-diagnose."
The Dashengguan section levee spans 7 kilometers. The R&D team selected a 2-kilometer segment, deemed most representative, as the典型堤段 (typical section) for intensive deployment of monitoring instruments. By analyzing data accumulated from this典型堤段, the aim is to develop a robust, adaptable model for an integrated smart levee system.
Using this "point-to-area" scientific approach not only facilitates the smooth implementation of the smart levee project but also makes replication and promotion easier. Importantly, this project is not a one-off construction effort but a continuously upgradeable "intelligent platform." Dr. Zheng Bin from the R&D team noted that the current five-dimensional monitoring system has significant potential for further development. Functions like infrared intelligent recognition for UUAVs and nearshore scour-and-siltation analysis for USVs can undergo secondary development on the existing platform, progressively increasing the "intelligence quotient" of the smart levee.
"The 15th Five-Year Plan period will be a critical time for accelerating the formation of new quality productive forces in water conservancy. Digital intelligence technologies like big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence will see widespread application and transformation within the water sector," Li Jun stated. The R&D team comprises experts from multiple disciplines, including materials, structures, geotechnics, and information technology. Rather than merely stacking equipment, they leverage years of experience in hydraulic engineering to deeply integrate devices, data, models, and practical engineering needs, truly making data serve engineering safety. This "research driven by engineering" model also means this smart levee pilot project is poised to provide valuable experience for the intelligent upgrading of Yangtze River levees.