Dam Failures from a 1000-Year Rainfall Event in South Carolina

摘要

A series of devastating dam failures caused significant damage to communities throughout South Carolina in October 2015. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC-DHEC) reported a total of 47 dams breached, with 22 of them located in the Columbia area. South Carolina has at least 2,500 dams, of which, 205 are classified as high-hazard potential structures. Many of these dams are privately owned and often lack the attention and funding needed for maintenance, monitoring, and upgrades. This paper presents results from a post-flood reconnaissance study aimed to collect perishable data from select dams that failed during the extreme flooding in Columbia. The study included collection of extensive photographic evidence and documentation of descriptive information related to the failure; collection of soil samples, and field and laboratory geotechnical tests. These data form valuable sets of well-documented case histories that can be used in the future to support large-scale research for advancing our fundamental understanding of complex failure mechanisms in extreme scenarios.