댐 안정성 검토를 위한 물리탐사 기법의 최근 기술 동향

Application of Geophysical Methods for Dam Safety Analysis: Recent technological trend

Sixteen percent of a total of 18,000 dam facilities in Korea are reported to suffer problems related to seepage. It has also been observed that the natural frequency of torrential rainfall has increased quite significantly in recent years. Seepage in man-made structures combined with natural phenomenon may make the risk of dam failure higher, and can even lead to disasters for the people residing in downstream area. Thus, the social demands for the technology to prevent these disasters are higher than ever. In this contribution, we provide a brief review of technologies that are used to evaluate the structural safety of dams. We also discuss the results of three case studies where geophysical exploration methods (e.g. resistivity survey) were employed to find possible seepage zones of dam structures.