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| The country's 37 dams under the management of the Ministry of Environment will start receiving technologically advanced checks and support from drones. PxHere |
By Ko Dong-hwan
Environment Minister Cho Myung-rae has called for strengthening the maintenance of Korea's aging dams using drones and other state-of-the-art technologies of the fourth industrial revolution.
On July 6, Cho visited Daecheong Dam in Daejeon and urged officials from the ministry's Water Resources Policy Bureau and Korea Water Recourses Corporation to "deploy the country's latest technologies in safety measures for the dams."
Cho also said they should take full advantage of the Green New Deal ― the ministry's 478 billion won ($400 million) set of new businesses on green-growth and low-carbon emission announced in May. The ministry allotted 1.3 billion won to drone equipment and manpower.
The touted measure uses drones to video-record dams above ground and underwater and uses the video footage to bring the dam into a three-dimensional vision. It allows specialists to check for signs of defects in the megastructure's nooks and crannies previously difficult for an inspector to examine while dangling dangerously from a rope.
The ministry called the virtual dam mapping a "digital twin" because it allows machinery and equipment from real life to be used in the virtual world.
Digital twin also stores recorded photos and videos as big data, which allows artificial intelligence analysis of the data to be accumulated.
Planned for complete development until 2025, the measure targets the country's 12 dams aged 40 years or longer or graded C or below in a close safety check. The dams are among 37 nationwide under the ministry's management.
