{"id":19936,"date":"2019-10-15T16:35:45","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T14:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wfeo.org\/?p=19936"},"modified":"2019-10-30T13:39:11","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T12:39:11","slug":"ceit-innovation-stories-01-blasting-away-the-iced-floods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wfeo.org\/ceit-innovation-stories-01-blasting-away-the-iced-floods\/","title":{"rendered":"CEIT Innovation Stories 01 – Blasting Away the Iced Floods"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CEIT<\/a>
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\nInnovation is one of the crucial drivers for the development of many aspects of modern society, in particular engineering that depends on new ideas and technologies to plan, design, build, maintain, and life-cycle management. It is embedded in the Sustainable Development Goal 9, and other SDGs as well, to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.<\/p>\n

To capture and share the innovative thoughts and activities all around the globe, The Committee on Engineering for Innovative Technologies<\/a> (WFEO-CEIT) is now doing a serial of innovation stories to take a close look at the creativity that we hope could inspire the readers and help better the future.
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The team built an ice flood prediction and forecast tool-box based on neural network, fuzzy mathematics and artificial intelligence.<\/b><\/div>\n
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\nThe first story is about a group of young engineers in the field of water who have developed a new toolbox on the freezingly cold river ice to prevent ice-jam flooding in the high-latitude northeastern area of China.<\/p>\n

Flooding Risks in the Frozen River<\/h3>\n

Mohe (53° 29′ N), famous for its nickname of Beiji Cun<\/i> (literally, northernmost village) in China, is a county-level city to the south of the Heilong River (literally black dragon river<\/i> in Chinese), a boundary river that is also known as Amur River in Russia. Winter is extremely cold here \u2013 the ice sheets in the river can be thicker than two meters. In the end of April when the sheets melt, ice surface cracks and huge ice blocks travel down the river. In some circumstances, the ice blocks the river channel to form ice dams and result in severe floods. Before 2012, there would be a flood caused by ice jam in almost every three years in this river, threating people\u2019s lives and properties.<\/p>\n

A good way to prevent ice floods is to blast the ice sheet at the highly risky river sections in advance, and that engineering procedure needs theoretical support from scientific research. Different from China\u2019s sandy Yellow River where scientists have gained rich experience of ice flood prevention, research about this cold-region-based river lags behind with very insufficient data.<\/p>\n

Then, a research team of engineers from China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research<\/a> (IWHR) undertook this arduous task through the project of \u201cIce Flood Prediction and Disaster Reduction in the Heilong River Basin\u201d sponsored by the Ministry of Water Resources of China.<\/p>\n

From Zero to Innovations<\/h3>\n

Starting from scratch, the team\u2019s primary task is to conduct research about river ice in high altitude regions. Two important parameters to measure in such research are water depth and ice thickness. However, the current single-frequency ground penetrating radar (GPR) cannot accurately measure water depth and ice thickness at the same time. To solve that problem, the engineer team from IWHR developed the double-frequency GPR, with which water depth and ice thickness data are collected simultaneously for the first time, greatly improving the efficiency and accuracy of field prototype observation.<\/p>\n

Paper on this achievement was published on Cold Regions Science and Technology<\/a><\/em>, an authoritative journal of ice engineering research in October 2018, and was promoted by Science Trends<\/a>, a famous popular science website in the United States.
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\n\"Double-Frequency<\/a><\/p>\n

Double-Frequency Ground Penetrating Radar<\/div>\n

 
\nApplying observation data and previous record of local weather and water level to their work, the team then built an ice flood prediction and forecast tool-box based on neural network, fuzzy mathematics and artificial intelligence.
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\n\"Ice<\/a><\/p>\n

Ice flood prediction and forecast system<\/div>\n

 
\nIce blasting engineering is another key to the success of the project. The team established the functional formula between radius of blasting hole and thickness of ice sheet, depth of water under ice and amount of explosives to be used. That formula helps predict the effect of blasting with more accuracy and efficiency, while saving more than 50% of explosives. <\/p>\n

\u201cSince IWHR took charge of the blasting with our innovative techniques, the risks of ice jams in the upper Heilong River have been largely reduced, and there hasn\u2019t been a single ice flood caused by ice dams in recent five years,\u201d said proudly Dr. Xinlei Guo, team leader of the project. Their remarkable achievement not only was reported by CNN specially, but also appears in the China Central TV news every year in spring.
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\n\"Screenshots<\/a><\/p>\n

Screenshots of news reports by CNN and CCTV<\/div>\n

 
\nWith concrete support from local authorities in Heilongjiang Province, the team has measured river sections of over 200 kilometers in total, conducted continuous observation and kept record of 14 ice-water parameters (including temperature, solar radiation, ice porosity, wind speed, flow velocity, etc.), developed five sets of new-type ice-water measuring equipment, and obtained first-hand data of over 100 gigabytes. The hydraulic theories about river ice and prevention system of ice-related disasters developed by the team give preliminary answers to the following key questions in ice flood prevention:<\/p>\n