1-3 cement-based piezoelectric composite has been developed for health monitoring of concrete structures. Transducers made of this type of composite have broadband frequency response. Plain concrete and engineered cement composite (ECC) beams with embedded 1-3 cement-based piezoelectric transducers were prepared and tested. During experiments, the transducers were used to perform active and passive detection of the damage evolution of the beams. In active detection, a damage index based on the average energy of the received waves was proposed and used. In passive detection, acoustic emission (AE) events were recorded and the accumulated AE event number was analyzed with the loading history. Crack localization was also accomplished in the passive monitoring. The results of the two methods demonstrated similar trends in interpreting the damage evolution of the concrete beam. The results were also consistent with each material's characteristics. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.