Dams Safety: Inspections, Safety Reviews, and Legislations

When a dam is built, its safety becomes a constant concern for the owner, the publicand for governments. Therefore, continuous observation through routineinspections and safety reviews become necessary. Acting as protectors of publicsafety, governments and professional organizations save no effort in thepromulgation of legislations and laying out guidelines for such inspections andreviews. These issues are discussed here starting with the basic first step of visualinspections by the operators and the follow up of detailed safety reviews byspecialists. Careful visual inspections assisted by instrumentation measurementsmay reveal an early negative issue such as, but not limited to, increased seepage,increased uplift pressure, signs of weakness like cracking in the body of the dam,or dams’ slope sloughing, and even damaged hydraulic control equipment.Documenting and reporting these observation helps in taking remedial measures ingood time and may lead to more intensive safety reviews. Suggested check lists forthe inspection engineers are given here, but these may be tailored for each damaccording to its needs. These lists cover issues common to both embankment andconcrete dams, and include other specific issues related to each type of them. Metalequipment take their share by listing such areas as corrosion, fatigue and cracking,tear, and wear and so on. Instrumentation measurements are also given their dueconsideration by giving brief mention of types of measurements needed and pointsto be observed in instrumentation control work. Finally, guidelines, rules, and legislations for Dam Safety Reviews are generally discussed giving examples fromfour countries in the world.