Comprehensive Dam Reviews:A Cost-Effective Approach for Estimating Dam Risks for Small and Medium-Sized Dams

摘要

The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) has performed Comprehensive Facility Reviews (CFRs) for their inventory of 350 large dams for the past 14 years consistent with the intent of the Federal Guidelines for Dam Safety. Other Department of Interior bureaus with dams (particularly the Bureau of Indian Affairs) have worked with Reclamation to develop a Comprehensive Dam Review (CDR) product for their generally small to medium dams (10 to 70 feet high) at less cost than a CFR. The CDR product is a multi-disciplinary team effort to conduct a thorough review of a dam, estimate its failure risks, and provide recommended future dam safety actions. The main stages of the CDR are data collection, information sharing, failure mode development, site examination, risk estimation, expert panel review, and client briefing. The benefits of the CDR to the DOI bureaus include: identification and charting of all estimated dam safety risks, identification of unacceptably high risks which need priority action, targeting of future visual and instrumented monitoring to the key performance indicators/parameters for each dam, providing the ability for the dam safety program to manage its risks on a portfolio-wide basis, identification/prioritization of issues for further evaluation, and targeting of emergency management activities to reduce risks. This paper describes the role of the CDR in a dam safety program, steps used to develop CDRs, risk estimation and display in CDR work, achievement of CDR consistency/technical adequacy, and costs/benefits of CDRs.