Deformation Monitoring and Bathymetry Analyses in Rock-Fill Dams, a Case Study at Ataturk Dam

Turkey has 595 dams constructed between 1936 and 2013 for the purposes of irrigation, flood control, hydroelectric energy and drinking water. A major portion of the dam basins in Turkey are deprived of vegetation and have slope topography on near surrounding area. However, landscaping covered with forest around the dam basin is desirable for erosion control. In fact; the dams, have basins deprived of vegetation, fill up quickly due to sediment transport. Erosion control and forestation are important factors, reducing the sediment, to protect the water basins of the dams and increase the functioning life of the dams. The functioning life of dams is as important as the investment and construction. Nevertheless, in order to provide safety of human life living around, well planned monitoring is essential for dams. Dams are very large and critical structures and they demand the use or application of precise measuring systems. Some basic physical data are very important for assessing the safety and performance of dams. These are movement, water pressure, seepage, reservoir and tail-water elevations, local seismic activities, total pressure, stress and strain, internal concrete temperature, ambient temperature and precipitation.

Monitoring is an essential component of the dam after construction and during operation and must en­able the timely detection of any behavior that could deteriorate the dam, potentially result in its shutdown or failure. Considering the time and labor consumed by long-term measurements, processing and analysis of measured data, importance of the small structural motions at regular intervals could be comprehended.

This study provides some information, safety and the techniques about the deformation monitoring of the dams, dam safety and related analysis.

The case study is the deformation measurements of Atatürk Dam in Turkey which is the 6^th largest dam of world considering the filling volume of embankment. Brief information is given about the dam and the methods of monitoring techniques applied by various disciplines.

Some results have been obtained from this method for nearly eight years are presented in this work. In addition, the results of bathymetric surveys between 2005 and 2010 will be compared using the cross sections where the maximum changes occurred on the dam bottom of the reservoir area.