Reservoir Digital Twin Platform: Faster Flood control and dispatching

1. Introduction

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The digital twin platform for reservoirs is equivalent to installing a "virtual avatar" for the reservoir, bringing the dam, water level and equipment all into the computer for real-time monitoring. Just like the system developed by the Maji Reservoir in Jinxi County, Fuzhou City, it uses Internet of Things sensors to capture water level and flow, and then uses AI algorithms to build a 1:1 virtual reservoir. Staff can see real data such as piezometer readings and gate opening degrees on the screen, and even the heat map of sediment accumulation after heavy rain is dynamically refreshed. Xiaolangdi is even more aggressive. Over 2,700 sensors have been buried in the dam body, generating more than 6,000 pieces of data every day. In the virtual model, it directly simulates how the flood will flow in the next three days. To put it bluntly, this thing is to transform reservoir management from "guessing based on experience" to "playing with data". Before the flood comes, the system has already deduced 100 possible ways to fail.

​2. Uses​

Flood control and drought relief are the core battlefields. The "Four Preparations" system of Ma Jie Reservoir can act as half a dispatcher - prioritizing the supply of water for residents during the dry season, and precisely monitoring the soil moisture conditions of each plot for farmland irrigation. During the severe drought in 2024, it managed to save 4 million tons of water. Heavy rain is even more thrilling: The Yangtze River Commission used a digital twin platform to predict floods. During the critical period from July to August 2024, it withheld 12 floods, reducing the response time from 3 hours to 10 minutes. Engineers in Datengxia, Guangxi, are more at ease. They shout to the AI assistant, "How many levels of response should be initiated when the rainfall in the reservoir area is 50mm?" The system can instantly check the flood control plan and pop up the answers, which is 8 times faster than flipping through documents.

The gate control has also been played out in a fancy way. The twin platform of a certain reservoir has been connected to the SCADA system. Remotely adjusting the opening degree of the sluice gate is like playing a game - with just a swipe of the finger, the flow rate of the water conveyance culvert changes immediately, and the video surveillance system allows real-time viewing of the water flow effect. Sudden power outage? The edge computing node automatically switches to local control and takes over the gate within 0.5 seconds of power failure.

​3. Advantages​

​Save lives and moneyIt's the hard truth. Xiaolangdi used digital twins to adjust water and sediment. After 27 operations, the depth of the river channel in the lower reaches of the Yellow River was washed by 3.1 meters. The flood control capacity soared from 1,800 m³/s to 5,000 m³/s, and the flood compensation was directly reduced to zero. Jinxi County has increased the efficiency of engineering inspection by three times with this system. Last year, 42 cracks in the dam body were identified, and the loss was reduced by over 30 million yuan.

​AI prediction prevents self-sabotageThis is the real black technology. The localized AI assistant of Huangcun Reservoir feeds all the "Flood Control Plan" and "Dispatching Regulations" to the machine learning model. Now, when workers shout "Generate health report" into their mobile phones, abnormal seepage warnings pop up in five seconds, which is two days faster than the calculation of experienced technicians. The platform of the Northwest Courtyard is even more remarkable - before the flood arrives, the virtual sand table has already demonstrated the impact of the dam break, clearly marking which village downstream will be flooded, when, and how deep the water is. In 2023, the actual operation will shorten the time for the evacuation of the masses by 85%.

​Mobile terminals crush traditional ones. A patrol worker at a reservoir in Anhui Province used to carry a 20-pound record book while climbing the dam. Now, by scanning the QR code of the equipment, the vibration curve is loaded in seconds. Once, the #3 unit made abnormal noises. Workers locked the loose volute bolts in 20 minutes, and the maintenance team went to the site directly to replace the parts.

​4. Application​

​A masterful operation in drought relief dispatchingIn 2024, Shandong Province suffered from a severe drought. Jinxi County used a water supply model to calculate priorities - ensuring water supply for hospitals and schools, limiting water flow for high-water-consuming enterprises, and combining satellite cloud images to capture rain cloud clusters. The opening of reservoir gates and rain were synchronized in real time, enabling 400,000 mu of wheat fields to survive the dry season.

​Cascade power station interlocking controlXiaolangdi, Sanmenxia and Wanjiacun Reservoirs are playing a "relay race". When the flood peak passes through in 2024, the upper reaches will first store water to reduce the peak, the middle reaches will release floodwaters at staggered times, and the lower reaches will pre-release water levels to release storage capacity. The entire process was simulated by dragging the progress bar on the digital twin platform, generating an additional 30 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.

​AI inspection uses an external cheatDrones at Huangcun Reservoir, equipped with infrared cameras, patrol the dam and automatically generate work orders for each crack they capture, which are then dispatched to the nearest maintenance worker. Last August, it was discovered that the concrete in the water conveyance tunnel was peeling off. From identification to completion of the repair, it only took 4 hours, but manual inspection took at least three days.

​Ecological restoration Easter eggThe Yellow River Delta relied on the Xiaolangdi Twin platform for ecological water replenishment. During the period of water and sediment regulation, precise irrigation was carried out on the wetlands, causing the coverage rate of Suaenopsis suaeniana to surge from 121 million tons to 551 million tons, and an additional 200 chicks of Oriental white storks were hatched.

​​Industry flashpoint​The Ministry of Water Resources plans to complete the construction of digital twin river basins for seven major rivers by 2025, and 47,000 reservoirs will be equipped with an integrated monitoring network covering air, space and ground

​​Technical egg​The new generation of platforms uses AR glasses to superimpose virtual seepage lines, and workers can see the dam body as if it were X-ray fluoroscopy

​Boss's account bookA system with an investment of 2 million yuan can save tens of millions of yuan in flood losses and 600,000 yuan in annual inspection fees, with a payback period of less than 2 years