DAM-TAGS (2021-2025) was a collaborative effort between the Oklahoma Water Resources Center, the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the USDA-Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), among others. It focused on developing a variety of engineering tools, design guidance documents and computer software applications for monitoring, inspecting and rehabilitating earthen floodwater control dams. 

 

In the mid-20th century, over 12,000 of these structures were built across the country (2,108 in Oklahoma... more than any other state!) as part of the USDA Small Watershed Program. Like roads and bridges, dams are also subject to the effects of aging. DAM-TAGS was initiated to develop new ways to help ensure these USDA-constructed dams remain safe and functional, especially as they approach the end of their planned service life. 

 

The DAM-TAGS team worked with ARS Partnerships for Data Innovations (PDI), other universities, and private partners on a variety of tasks to accomplish this goal. The project had multiple components, including:

• Developing a centralized network of remote sensing arrays to provide real-time access to weather and soil data at dam locations  

• Utilizing drones for aerial monitoring of watersheds 

• Exploring the social and economic aspects of conservation practices, flood control, insurance policies, and federal and state assistance during extreme weather events

• Investigating the impacts of environmental and land use changes within associated watersheds on dam condition and function

• Writing new guidance documents and revising existing ones

• Establishing a cloud-based network for monitoring data from reservoirs and levees

• Developing training curricula on these new tools for delivery via webinars, hands-on learning workshops, videos and field demonstrations. 

 

Original funding for the project has ended, but goals remain of new funding to further work on these components.

 

Wade a Little Deeper!

Learn more details on topics mentioned above: DAM-TAGS Final Report

 

Partners of the OWRC

• USDA-Agricultural Research Services

• USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service 

• University of Missouri

• Virginia Tech University 

• Esri

 

What are the Benefits of Oklahoma Lakes?

 

What on Earth is an Earthen Dam?

An earthen dam is a structure composed of layers of compacted soil, sand, gravel and other earthen materials used to retain and control the flow of water.

 

What is Dam Rehabilitation?

Dam rehabilitation are processes that repair, strengthen and upgrade dams to ensure their continued function to protect those in the floodplains.

 

What are Floodplains?

According to the National Flood Insurance Program (part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency), a floodplain is any land area susceptible to being inundated by floodwaters from any source.

 

Who is PDI?

The USDA-Agricultural Research Service's Partnerships for Data Innovation (PDI) is an inter-agency initiative created to develop and implement tools and technologies to capture, access, manipulate, share, visualize and apply agricultural data for ARS scientists and collaborators.

 

The PDI team helped establish a dam monitoring network framework, including software development for data collection, management, and transfer. They collaborated on the development of (1) geographic information system-based tools for dam monitoring and inspection, (2) an application programming interface to transfer data collected through this project to collaborators and stakeholders, and (3) a decision support informatics platform to facilitate communications between researchers and stakeholders. 

 

The PDI team works nationwide with ARS scientists across disciplines and uses their data to speed innovation and transfer technologies to the agricultural community. New technology has exponentially increased the quality and quantity of scientific data across all agricultural research. To successfully integrate, store, serve and analyze large and diverse datasets, new data infrastructure tools and automation need to be employed.