Strong earthquakes always draw attention to the behavior of engineering structures of major importance, such as large dams, in which the assessment of seismic risk is a very difficult task, mainly because of the lack of real records from the impact of strong earthquakes on this type of engineering structures and lack of data on their response to such type of excitement.

Modern, digital systems for seismic oscultation enable continuous and reliable monitoring of the seismic activity and recording the occurred earthquakes. The “Piva” dam is one of the highest concrete arch dams in the world and as early as its putting into operation in 1976, instruments for seismic oscultation were installed – 6 analogue SMA-1 accelerographs, supplied with a starter which is automatically triggered at a predetermined acceleration level. The results from the measurements are recorded on a film.

In 2013, given the importance of the construction for the Montenegrin economy, the seismic oscultation network was upgraded with the installation of equipment for digital recording of earthquakes manufactured by Kinemetrics – USA, in order to provide high quality data on the seismic activity and behavior of the dam during seismic actions.