The deformation monitoring system for Sarez Lake Dam based on BeiDou technology has been upgraded and put into operation on Sept. 18.

The upgraded version can ensure stable operation of the system under unattended condition for a long time, while providing data support for monitoring the ecological environment of Sarez Lake.

The system was co-developed by the National Time Service Center (NTSC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia of CAS, National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan and Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defense of Tajikistan in October 2021. It applied BeiDou-3 high-precision positioning technology to the Usoy dam in Sarez Lake for real-time deformation monitoring.

The first two stations have continuously provided displacement and deformation data in millimeter-level precision.

"Initiated in April 2022, the upgrade work focused on adding monitoring stations and upgrading receiver firmware and software systems," said Prof. TU Rui from NTSC.

According to Prof. TU, the upgrade work included the addition of six monitoring stations in the dam area to form a regional BeiDou monitoring network with the two existing monitoring stations, which would improve the continuity of real-time data acquisition, expand the monitoring scope and improve the stability of the calculating. It also included the upgrade of the receiver firmware and software system, which would improve the stability of the system and support the acquisition and transmission of BeiDou signal to noise observation.

Due to the frequent geological disasters in Central Asia, the BeiDou Ubiquitous Deformation Monitoring System developed by the team will be promoted and applied in the field of safety monitoring such as mudslides, avalanches and side slopes in Central Asia.