Bridge Vibrations as Persistent Seismic Sources for Time-lapse Imaging of River Corridors with Distributed Acoustic Sensing

Abstract

Fluvial corridors mediate dynamic river-groundwater exchanges and support major transportation infrastructure, yet continuous subsurface monitoring remains limited by sparse point sensors and infrequent time-lapse surveys. Addressing this observational gap is critical during extreme flood events, when transient saturation, pore-pressure buildup, and structural scour drive complex hydro-mechanical changes that threaten both riparian slope stability and bridge foundations. Here, we demonstrate that traffic-excited highway bridges act as persistent, spatially fixed seismic sources; their vibrations, recorded on roadside telecommunication fiber with Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), enable time-lapse imaging of river corridors. We evaluate this approach using dark fiber recordings along South Korea's Gyeongbu Expressway during a record monsoon flood in July 2025, targeting a 430 m multi-span bridge crossing the Miho River. Vehicle impacts excite flexural resonances of the bridge deck, generating a discrete spectral comb of fundamental-mode Rayleigh waves in the surrounding ground; these 3-6 Hz waves propagate beyond 400 m across both riverbanks to image the alluvial section down to bedrock. Because bridge-structure geometry constrains the source location and dominant modal frequencies, virtual source gathers achieve rapid convergence within 5 min of ballistic wave stacking with high waveform repeatability over the recording period. Relative seismic velocity (dv/v) monitoring resolves velocity drops up to 1.0% during flood passage associated with heavy precipitation and river stage rise, consistent with hydrological softening of the riparian sediments. These results demonstrate that traffic-excited bridges provide persistent, repeatable seismic illumination, turning roadside telecommunication cables into dense arrays for both hydrogeophysical and civil infrastructure applications.