Constructed in 1970, New Bullards Bar Dam was part of the Yuba River Development project to reduce flood risk, generate clean hydropower, and ensure reliable water supply for Yuba County. Yuba Water Agency initiated a modernization of the dam monitoring system, replacing a hazardous legacy system and manual inspections. The new system optimizes dam operations, preventing potential loss of life and billions of dollars of damage in Northern Sacramento Valley. Faced with steep terrain and site challenges, Yuba Water needed to remotely survey and monitor the dam.

They selected iTwin Capture Modeler to generate a 3D reality mesh from thousands of drone-captured images and uploaded the mesh to the iTwin Platform, creating a digital twin. The digital twin remotely captures sensor data from monitoring devices and performs real-time digital crack detection, enabling visualization into the structural integrity of the dam. Compared to the conventional monitoring system, the automated digital station provides 1,000 times more data monitoring points and has improved data accuracy by 50% and risk assessment by 100%.