Revitalizing Water Storage Capacity: Remote Sensing and Optimization-Based Design for a New Dam

Most of the dam structures around the world are approaching the end of their economic life of 50 to 70 years, especially due to sediment accumulation in reservoir areas. This situation necessitates the development of proactive infrastructure management strategies. This study presents an original framework for the process of renewal of aging dams that blends remote sensing techniques and meta-intuitive optimization methods. Within the scope of the study, the Hasanlar Dam located in Düzce was selected as a sample, and a new dam axis was determined in the upper part of the basin. A detailed volume–height curve was created using 12.5 m resolution ALOS PALSAR numerical height models (DEM) and GIS-based spatial data curation to calculate the reservoir storage capacity in precise increments of 2 m. To maximize the structural efficiency of the proposed “New Hasanlar Dam”, the cross-sectional area has been minimized through seven current algorithms such as Genetic Algorithm (GA), Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm (AOA), Gray Wolf Optimizer (GWO), Dragonfly Algorithm (DA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Crayfish Optimization Algorithm (CAO), and Cheetah Optimizer (CO). The findings obtained prove that the PSO and CAOs achieved a significant reduction in cross-sectional area by 29.36% and successfully approached the global optimum. The replacement of the 55.5 million m 3 capacity of the existing Hasanlar Dam with a new structure with a height of 78 m will guarantee sustainability and structural safety in water management. As a result, this study reveals that the integration of high-resolution remote sensing data and advanced heuristic methods is a cost-effective and powerful tool in the strategic renovation of aging hydraulic infrastructures.