Author(s): Monica S. R. Zuffo; Ana I. B. Genovez; Antonio C. Zuffo
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Small Dams; Hierarchy Process; Dam Safety Index; Decision Support Systems
Abstract: Studies about potential failures of dams are increasingly important due to population concentrations in vulnerable areas downstream and the increase of social, economical and environmental concerns. Dam designers and owners have been preoccupied with safety issues, showing that security affairs should be given maximum priority in all phases of a dam life, which are their design, construction, operation, maintenance and removal. Small dams are the great majority of constructed dams in the world. They tend to offer more risks since they have little or no instrumentation and their construction do not require refined technology. The security conditions of a dam can be measured by safety indexes, which are to gather together and inform basic information. Yet, once the safety conditions are established, tools able to rank dams found in an unsafe condition are necessary. The objective of this work is to present an indexing type of tool, the Dam Index Prioritization to help prioritize maintenance and repairs of small dams in risk of failure. The method takes into account eighteen different parameters, each one with its own weight and value function. Nine earthfill dams, previously classified in an unsatisfactory safety conditions, were chosen to illustrate its use. The prioritization index shall help owners and public agencies responsible for monitoring and maintaining the security of dams in a dam safety decision-making process. It is most useful for embankment dams with little or no instrumentation and/or continuous monitoring and for those with no records about performance history. The method showed to be an important tool to rank dams in need of repairs, where they cannot be fixed or profoundly studied all at the same time.
Year: 2009