Kakhovka Dam, Ukraine: New research indicate damage before its collapse

A new study published this month in Nature Communications Earth and Environment by a team from the University of Houston, TU Delft, and DLR suggests that the collapse of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine, crucial for water management and hydroelectric power, may have been developing before the war, with structural deformations occurring prior to its failure on June 6, 2023.

During the incident, a significant part of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine collapsed and now the research team’s new findings indicate that deformations in the dam existed before its collapse, providing major insights into its stability.

Specifically, an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UH, Pietro Millio, stated that due to their analysis, they had observed that displacements had taken place in different areas of the dam two years prior to its collapse. The study used a methodology called InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar), which measures infrastructure deformation from space with millimetric precision using radar images from satellites.

The researchers also stated that the data support the hypothesis that the structure was sinking since June 2021. The research not only emphasized the deformations that affected the Kakhovka Dam but also highlighted the potential of InSAR as a proactive tool for infrastructure stability assessment.

Furthermore, the researchers mentioned that due to climate change and geopolitical instabilities, InSAR’s ability to monitor ground displacements with accuracy will attribute to forensic engineering in general, while risk assessment and informed decision-making processes will be more accurate.

In all, the research team pointed out that proactive observation with the aid of remote monitoring could be the key to the protection of critical infrastructures to ensure their integrity and stability and prevent catastrophic events.