Recent developments in bridge scour monitoring in the UK and Ireland

Abstract Scour, the erosion of sediment around bridge foundations caused by water flow, poses a serious threat to structural stability, particularly during high‐water events such as floods. Network Rail has identified scour as the leading cause of bridge failures in the UK over the past century, with approximately 4500 structures currently at risk. This paper underscores the urgent need for enhanced scour monitoring, a need that is increasingly important due to the rising frequency of flood events driven by climate change. It critically reviews recent advances in scour monitoring technologies, focusing on systems that measure scour depth or detect structural dynamic changes. The review highlights emerging methods including interferometric synthetic aperture radar, water penetrating radar, electromagnetic probes, underwater sonar scanning, as well as vibration‐based techniques such as natural frequency, mode shape and operating deflection shape analysis, and indirect approaches using drive‐by monitoring, computer vision, and satellite‐based synthetic aperture radar. These advancements are needed for developing more resilient infrastructure management strategies and the paper includes a comparative evaluation of the benefits and limitations of each approach.