The formation of scours is a well-known issue and is expected to see an increase in incidents and severity around the nation with recent climate change trends. At bridge piers, scours develop due to hydraulic actions on the pier and hence if left unaddressed may cause a bridge to collapse. The typical way to monitor scours on bridge piers is to perform manual measurements after a major flood. While it is a common practice, it might not be able to characterize the scour depths accurately due to deposition of sediment after the flood recedes. To ensure the safety of a bridge, scours must be monitored closely during flooding events to capture its real extent. Additionally, it is hypothesized that the scour extent can also be estimated by observing the vibration characteristics of a bridge. The availability and accessibility of cost-efficient sensors and microprocessors opens the possibility of real-time data acquisition and monitoring. This work proposes a setup for remote bridge health and scour monitoring through direct scour depth measurements and vibrational characteristics of a bridge using cost efficient sensors and microprocessors. The architecture of the system will be discussed along with some preliminary data collected using the proposed system. Data collected from the system will allow for future study of scour formation during flood, which is important to verify and calibrate current numerical models.
