Right now, there are three major challenges for dam safety :  - A rapidly changing natural world that both threatens to make natural events such as floods and earthquakes more frequent and intense, while at the same time placing more demand on those key societal benefits that dams offer such as clean water and clean power.   - Infrastructure which was designed and constructed with the science and engineering of decades past that now require an infusion of investment to address the advancements in the dam engineering profession for safety and reliability.   - A fundamental disconnect in society regarding the how land development behavior has privatized gains in and around dams, while socializing the losses and risks that invariably come with increasing populations.   Thus I think the authors have missed the point by concentrating on the aging of dams.  Engineering design and construction of dams must be appreciated for its robust nature intrinsic for generations in practice and regulation.  Dams are designed, built, carefully supervised, and maintained as an ever indispensable, vital part of our society’s critical infrastructure. Careful regulation and a strong professional state of the practice built on global cooperation through organizations such as ICOLD have shown that dam structures can have a life expectancy of hundreds to thousands of years. One need only look at the Roman dam near Extremadura, Spain, Proserpina Dam which was commissioned back in the 1st century AD.  It was built to provide water supply to the city of Emerita Augusta.  This dam has lasted more than 2000 years serving as a key part of the regional infrastructure to provide clean water to people.  It shows that with proper engineering, good construction and regular maintenance, the dams that we design and build today can continue to serve people of our world for many, many generations.   I also consider that the authors are focusing too much on dams decomissionning and forget other ways to face the challenge of aging dams : Maintenance improvement especially.

Published by

Right now, there are three major challenges for dam safety : 

- A rapidly changing natural world that both threatens to make natural events such as floods and earthquakes more frequent and intense, while at the same time placing more demand on those key societal benefits that dams offer such as clean water and clean power.

 

- Infrastructure which was designed and constructed with the science and engineering of decades past that now require an infusion of investment to address the advancements in the dam engineering profession for safety and reliability.

 

- A fundamental disconnect in society regarding the how land development behavior has privatized gains in and around dams, while socializing the losses and risks that invariably come with increasing populations.

 

Thus I think the authors have missed the point by concentrating on the aging of dams.  Engineering design and construction of dams must be appreciated for its robust nature intrinsic for generations in practice and regulation.  Dams are designed, built, carefully supervised, and maintained as an ever indispensable, vital part of our society’s critical infrastructure. Careful regulation and a strong professional state of the practice built on global cooperation through organizations such as ICOLD have shown that dam structures can have a life expectancy of hundreds to thousands of years.

One need only look at the Roman dam near Extremadura, Spain, Proserpina Dam which was commissioned back in the 1st century AD.  It was built to provide water supply to the city of Emerita Augusta.  This dam has lasted more than 2000 years serving as a key part of the regional infrastructure to provide clean water to people.  It shows that with proper engineering, good construction and regular maintenance, the dams that we design and build today can continue to serve people of our world for many, many generations.

 

I also consider that the authors are focusing too much on dams decomissionning and forget other ways to face the challenge of aging dams : Maintenance improvement especially.