Application of geophysical monitoring system and GIH 01 tool at the river basin scale as a part of integrated water resources management in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The Geophysical Monitoring System (GMS) has been designed as a new instrument for maintenance of and checks on safety of flood control dikes in the Czech Republic. Having used the new tool to define hot spots of an existing embankment system, detailed investigation, maintenance and renewal efforts can be concentrated in a cost-effective way on the critical parts of the embankments. Based on the analysis of geophysical measurements carried out on the dikes and based on the discussion with the dike owners/caretakers representatives it can be stated that for maintenance and check of the dikes there are 3 basic types of tasks that can be effectively covered using geophysical methods. The first task includes a survey of long embankment sections (Quick Testing Measure), the second refers to detailed investigation of problem sections and the third one aims at providing basic data for classification and a geomechanical description of the dikes material. The GMS comes with special software - GIH 01. This GIH01 tool is a light version of software for geophysical inspection of the dams and it is being developed and tested within research projects financed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic: "Research and development of the modular system GIH 01 for applications for Integrated Water Resources Management in the catchment scale and floods prevention". Thanks to the GMS control method and GIH 01 data evaluation and visualization it is possible to design the optimal process of dike reconstruction and protection within the entire river basin areas. © 2009 WIT Press.