| Comprehensive inspection for asset management has recently started for almost all infrastructures controlled by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). The inspection has also proceeded for old large dams constructed before 30 years ago, which occupy about 45% of all large dams of MLIT. The temporal inspection results revealed that 4 types of engineering geological problems have often occurred, namely deformation of dam or its foundation (temporal occurrence rate; 27%), water problems such as leakage, erosion and rise in uplift pressure (13%), deterioration in rock materials (20%), and slope movements or landslides near dams or reservoirs (37%). Though the above occurrence rate is temporal one by the author’s experience, it suggests that the foundations of dams and reservoirs also deteriorate. As these deteriorations proceed by geological mechanisms, we have to detect the deterioration, clarify the mechanism, analyze the deterioration speed and its influence to dam, and plan countermeasures by engineering geologically effective methods. The above PDCA cycle is engineering geological asset management (EGAM) and is challenging field for future engineering geology. In this paper, the concept of EGAM is discussed with some inspection cases. |
