InfraWatch: Data Management of Large Systems for Monitoring Infrastructural Performance

This paper introduces a new project, InfraWatch, that demonstrates the many challenges that a large complex data analysis application has to offer in terms of data capture, management, analysis and reporting. The project is concerned with the intelligent monitoring and analysis of large infrastructural projects in the public domain, such as public roads, highways, tunnels and bridges. As a demonstrator, the project includes the detailed measurement of traffic and weather load on one of the largest highway bridges in the Netherlands. As part of a recent renovation and re-enforcement effort, the bridge has been equipped with a substantial sensor network, which has been producing large amounts of sensor data for more than a year. The bridge is currently equipped with a multitude of vibration and stress sensors, a video camera and weather station. We propose this bridge as a challenging environment for intelligent data analysis research. In this paper we outline the reasons for monitoring infrastructural assets through sensors, the scientific challenges in for example data management and analysis, and we present a visualization tool for the data coming from the bridge. We think that the bridge can serve as a means to promote research and education in intelligent data analysis.