Seminar Report

on

“Dam Safety ”

Submitted by

Avinash Sanap

Guided By

Prof. S.R.BAND

Submitted to Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Amravati in

partialfulfillment of the requirements for the award of degree
BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
in
CIVIL ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

PROF. RAM MEGHE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ANDRESEARCH,
BADNERA, AMRAVATI-444701
2022-2023
 CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION

This is to certify that the Seminar Report titled “Dam Safety”, has been
satisfactorily completed by Avinash Sanap in partial fulfillment of the award
of Degree of BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING in CIVIL ENGINEERING from Sant
Gadge Baba Amravati University, Amravati for the academic session 2022-
2023

Date: / /2022 Prof. S.R.BAND

 ABSTRACT

Dams construction is an old art practiced by man since thousands of years. History of dams
shows great innovations in this field, but failure cases, however, indicate gaps in human
knowledge of safety measures that could have stopped such failures. Available statistics
show of a great boom in building dams during the past century and indicate at the same
time large number of failures associated with losses in human lives and material damage.
Uses of these dams during this period, apart from flood control and storing water for
irrigation were also for hydropower generation, navigation, drinking water supply,
recreation and in mining operations as tailing dams. Reduced dam safety leading to
failures, accidents and higher safety hazards were caused by insufficient knowledge of the
geological conditions and in using wrong or deficient foundation treatment. Dam safety
was compromised in cases of insufficient hydrological data and design of inadequate
spillways. Misinterpretation of the seismic conditions of the area and adopting seismic
criteria compatible with such seismic conditions is also added as one more reasons of
failures. Human mistakes and errors have undermined safety in many cases in the
operation of dams leading to grave safety issues including many failures. Safety hazards
also were exasperated by increasing population and land use in the downstream areas of
dams and by failing to do necessary inspection and maintenance or upgrading works. More
emphasis over dam safety measures is needed now in our existing dams and in their future
development of dams if they are to continue delivering their benefit without causing harm
to human communities.
Contents
1.INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 5
2.Dams Design and Construction ................................................................................................. 6
3.Types of Dam ........................................................................................................................... 7
A)Gravity Dam ............................................................................................................................ 7
B)Earth Dam ................................................................................................................................ 8
4.Dam Failure ............................................................................................................................... 9
5.Dam Failure Around the world ............................................................................................... 10
6.Dam Safety ............................................................................................................................. 11
7.Dam safety in Maharashtra .................................................................................................... 12
7.1Organization.......................................................................................................................... 12
7.2Periodic Inspection Programme ........................................................................................... 13
7.3. Geological Aspects .............................................................................................................. 13
7.4. Hydrological Aspects ........................................................................................................... 13
8.About Dam Safety Bill, 2021 ................................................................................................... 14
9.Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 15
9. References ............................................................................................................................. 16
 1. INTRODUCTION

The safety of dams in our country is the principal concern of the State agencies that are
involved in the various aspects of their investigation, planning, design, construction, operation
and maintenance. While most of the dams have performed well, there have been a few failures.
These failures, either partial or complete, highlight the need to review the procedures and the
criteria that are being adopted by the various States with the object of establishing the best
assurance of dam safety within the limitation of the present state-of-art.

All State agencies who own the dams and have responsibility or are involved with
any of the aspects of the project, carry-out the maintenance of the structures in some
prescribed manner of their own. The practices of dam safety-operation-maintenance and
surveillance, etc., being adopted by the various agencies differ from State to State and also
from agency to agency within the State.

Dams usually play a role in mitigating the impacts of regular floods. At the
same time they introduce a catastrophic hazard of even greater flooding in the event of dam
failure.1 Dam failure — also known as dam break — is the physical destruction of the dam.
Dam failure has multiple instigating factors, both man-made (bad design, ineffective
monitoring, bad operations & maintenance (O&M) etc.) and natural (heavy rains, landslides
etc.). ŒTherefore, knowing how existing and proposed dams can fail, and the consequences of
their failure is crucial for mitigating disaster risk created by their construction. Poor dam
management was also reportedly a significant aggravating factor . While dam failure did not
take place in either of those cases, both the disasters could have been even worse had that
happened.

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 2. Dams Design and Construction
While construction of dams continued for ages, development in the design and types of these
dams evolved. The need for building more dams increased with the development of human
societies and their increased use of water and enhanced knowledge of hydraulics. In this
development the Romans may be regarded as pioneers for their advances in hydraulic
engineering, which led them to build higher dams and develop new types. They were creative
and abundant in dam construction, and during the height of the empire, they built large number
of gravity dams, most notably the Subiaco Dams. The Subiaco Dams were a cascade of three
gravity dams on the Aniene River in Subiaco, Italy, that were built during the reign of Nero
(54–68AD). The largest of these dams stood 165 feet tall and was the tallest dam in the world
until its destruction in 1305; which was due to mismanagement, [7]. The Romans also
constructed the world’s first arch dam in the province of Gallia-Narbonensis, now modern-day
southwest France, in the first century BC. The remains of the Glanum Dam, the first recorded
true arch dam in history, were discovered in 1763. Unfortunately, a modern arched gravity dam
replaced the ancient structure in 1891, and all remnants of the Glanum Dam were lost. The
Romans were also responsible for constructing the world’s first buttress dam. Many such dams
were built in the Iberian Peninsula, although they tended to fail due to their too-thin
construction. As a consequence of the industrial revolution and the increased demand for water
during the modern times, large dams began to appear especially after the introduction of
concrete in their construction. Major advances in concrete dam design were made from 1853 to
1910 by British and French engineers.

Fig. Structure of Dam

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 3. Types of Dam
A) Gravity Dam

A gravity dam is a huge sized dam mainly constructed from concrete or stone. They are
capable of holding a large amount of water behind them.

For this dam construction, if the concrete is used the weight of the dam is actually able to resist
the horizontal thrust of water pushing against it. This is why it is named a gravity dam. Gravity
forces mainly hold the dam to the ground and present from any seepage action.

Gravity dams are well suited for multipurpose projects as they can hold river water in
wide valleys or narrow gorges ways. Since a gravity dam mainly holds backwater by its self-
weight, it is necessary that it is built on a solid foundation of bedrock.Examples of Gravity
dams: Nagarjuna Sagar (India)

Fig. Gravity Dam

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 B) Earth Dam

These types of dams are fully constructed from natural earth material by compacting
the successive layer of earth on each other, using the most impervious materials to form a core,
and placing more permeable substances on the upstream and downstream sides.

Upstream and downstream face of an earth dam is covered with crushed stone to prevent
erosion by wind or rain, and an ample spillway, usually of concrete, protects against
catastrophic washout should the water overtop the dam.

Earth dam is capable of resisting forces acting upon it mainly due to the shear strength of the
soil. The earth dam’s weight also helps in resisting the forces; the structural behavior of an
earth dam is entirely different from that of a gravity dam.

Fig. Earth Dam

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 4. Dam Failure
Dam failure is the sudden and rapid uncontrolled release of water impounded by the dam
due to collapse of the dam itself or, in some cases due to an upstream land slide into the
reservoir with or without the collapse of the dam. Such an uncontrolled release of water may
result from insufficient or faulty design, inferior construction procedures, malfunctioning of
one or more components of the dam, or as in the case of landslides, insufficient investigation
of the stability of the reservoirs`’ slopes. Insufficient design in its turn may be caused by one
of the following:

i. Misunderstanding of the geological conditions of the foundation of the dam. This

leads to wrong or deficient foundation treatment, and seepage controls arrangements,
or unexpected deformation of these foundations.

ii. Erroneous calculation of the inflow designed flood. This can result in overtopping of
the dam due to insufficient spillway capacity and/ or insufficient free board.

iii. Misinterpretation of the seismic conditions of the area and adopting seismic criteria
which are not compatible with such seismic conditions.

Faulty design may include among many other things the use of improper factors of safety and
method of stability analysis, selection of inappropriate construction materials, insufficient
drainage arrangements of the foundation and the dam body. Similarly, inferior quality control
during construction is an obvious cause which can lead to failure of a dam .

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 5. Dam Failure Around the world

ŒThere have been approximately 4000 known large dam failures across 84 countries till date,
not counting China (Regan 2010). However, it must be noted that this number is likely a gross
underestimate since many dam failure events go unreported.

Cheng et al. (2010) find that there have been close to 4000 dam failures in China since 1954.
500 of these were in the year 1973 alone. A further 37,000 dams are classified as dangerous
(China warns of faulty dams danger, plans repairs 2008). Apart from having had the greatest
number of recorded dam failures, the most destructive dam failure event in recorded history is
also from China: the Banqiao dam failure in 1975. ŒThe collapse of Banqiao Dam led to a
cascade which resulted in the collapse of 60 other downstream dams. Œe resulting floods
killed more than 80,000 people, and another 200,000 died due to ensuing epidemics and food
shortages (Patrick McCully 2005). It is estimated that close to 11 million people were
displaced due to this one event.

The Teton dam collapse in 1976 in Idaho, USA is another famous case study for dam
failure. While the casualties in this case were low (11 deaths), it led to an estimated USD 2
billion in property damage (Teton Dam Failure Review Group (U.S.) and Eikenberry 1977).

It is estimated that at least 5000 large dams across the world are older than 50 years. They are
either past or nearing the end of their design lives (P. McCully 2001), and pose a risk.

USA, China and other countries which have built large dams, have developed
systems for mitigating risk from dams. India will have to develop similar systems given the
large number of dams which already exist and for those which are expected to be constructed
in the near future.

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 6. Dam Safety

The great number of dams which have been built already in the world today or those to be built
in the future have been subject of special emphasis on the questions of dams’ safety and their
hazards. The terms ―Safety‖ and ―Hazards‖ are interrelated; the first means the quality of
averting or not causing injury, danger, or loss; the second may be said to denote something
unavoidable, danger or risk. The question of dam safety concerns the dam only, while the term
dam hazard is much wider as it encloses in addition to losing the dam itself the risk of flooding
of the downstream valley causing life loss, material and property losses and environmental
damage. In this case, the reservoir behind the dam is called into play as an essential element in
deciding the magnitude of the hazard.

Dam safety is normally controlled by the owner through proper selection of the site, ensuring
good design, proper construction followed by competent management, applying appropriate
inspections and repair measures; all these actions are to be done following recognized
specifications, codes, laws, and regulations. The dam hazard question however, must be
followed by national authorities and governments whose responsibility does not stop at issuing
the required laws and legislations but also ensuring the correct following of them by the dams’
owners, and this extends to give serious thoughts to the possibility of failure of the dam, even
if the probability of such an event is infinitesimal. Planning for such a remote possibility
includes the performance of dam break studies as a prerequisite to any work concerning flood
zoning, early flood warning, evacuation plans, and rescue and salvage measures to reduce the
damages to the minimum possible level. Emergency Action Plans (EAP) to meet all these must
always be available, updated, and ready, and a certain level of preparedness shall be kept
always to meet emergencies. The failure of a dam and the hazards it involves could take the
dimensions of a national catastrophe in the absence of such measures.

Dam safety can be delineated into two elements based on the stage in a dam’s life-cycle in
which they are pertinent viz.:
1. Pre-construction: ŒThis includes various impact assessments, and design and engineering
standards. These components inform the cost-benefit analyses which determines whether or
not the infrastructure should be built in the € first place. If it is to be built, then these
components determine what is the optimal location and design.

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2. Post-construction: ŒThis category includes regulations, standards and best practices in dam
operations and management. It includes Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for day-to-day
O&M, SOPs for handling exceptional events (e.g.: emergency action plans), and surveillance
and monitoring. A third category — ―during-construction‖ elements — of safety can also be
delineated, but this mainly relates only to faithful implementation of an approved design.
ŒTherefore, it will be ignored in the rest of the discussion.

7. Dam safety in Maharashtra

7.1 . Organization

There are about 1200 large dams in Maharashtra State including 940 completed large dams
and 260 dams under construction. Most of the dams in Maharashtra State are under the
jurisdiction of the Irrigation Department of the State. There are some dams owned by Semi
Government and private bodies like Environmental Engineering Board, Maharashtra State
Electricity Board, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, Bombay Municipal
Corporation and Tata Hydro Electric Company. All such dams are expected to be under the
State supervision of the Irrigation Department for safety aspects. The pre- and postmonsoon
inspections of dams owned by Tata Hydro Electric Company are already being conducted by
the officers of Irrigation Department since their commissioning.

The Dam Safety Organization in Maharashtra does not have any independent
hydrology unit for flood studies for the work of review of spillway capacities of existing dams
in the State. However, the Government has constituted a Committee comprising the
Superintending Engineer, Dam Safety Organization, Nasik, as the Chairman and six Executive
Engineers from Water Resources Investigation Divisions and Irrigation Projects Investigations,
including the Executive Engineer, Water Planning, CDO, Nasik, as members. One
Meteorologist from India Meteorological Department is also a member of this Committee.

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 7.2 . Periodic Inspection Programme

There is a schedule for regular inspection of all dams in the State which indicates the different
types of dams and the categories into which they could be classified and also the levels of
officers at which close vigilance is maintained by camping at the dam site and the levels at
which periodic inspections are done and inspection reports sent to higher authorities.

For inspection reports, there are various proforma and even for inspection of
minor irrigation dams, specific proforma have been evolved. The inspections are carried out as
pre-monsoon and postmonsoon inspection. Special inspections are carried out during and after
heavy floods, earthquake and if any signs of peculiar behaviour are noted.

7.3. Geological Aspects

Under the Superintending Engineer (Masonry Dams), CDO, Nasik. This unit, along with
the Engineering Geology Division of Geological Survey of India (GSI), Nagpur, advises on
the initial geological investigations and interpretation of the results. The geological reports
prepared by the GSI and the State Geologists are examined in the CDO, Nasik for preparing
detailed designs about foundation treatment, etc.

7.4. Hydrological Aspects

At present the flood estimate is done by unit hydrograph method. The design storm and
relevant data for design flood are being obtained from the India Meteorological Department .

Review of spillway capacity of all existing dams has been taken up by the DSO and 33 dams
have been identified for such a review. The adequacy of spillway capacity is checked
tentatively for 12 dams. Latest designs flood criteria based on PMP and PMF or SPF and the
up-to-date hydrological data is being followed for such reviews.

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 8. About Dam Safety Bill, 2021

The dam safety bill 2019 has been passed in the winter session of parliament, making it the
dam safety act, 2021.The constitutional validity of the Dam safety act has been challenged in
the high court. An Act to provide for the surveillance, inspection, operation, and maintenance
of the specified dam for prevention of dam failure related disasters and to provide for an
institutional mechanism to ensure their safe functioning and for matters connected.

Features of the act:

 The National Committee on Dam Safety will be constituted and will be chaired by the
chairperson, Central Water Commission. Functions of the committee will include
formulating policies and regulations regarding dam safety standards and prevention of
dam failures, analyzing the causes of major dam failures, and suggesting changes in dam
safety practices.
 The act also ideates setting up a National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) to be headed by
an officer, not below the rank of an Additional Secretary, to be appointed by the central
government. The main task of this authority includes implementing the policies
formulated by the National Committee on Dam Safety, resolving issues between State
Dam Safety Organisations (SDSOs), or between an SDSO and any dam owner in that
state, specifying regulations for inspection and investigation of dams.
 The NDSA will also provide accreditation to agencies working on construction, design,
and alteration of dams.
 The act also envisages constituting a State Dam Safety Organisation (SDSO) whose
functions will be to keep perpetual surveillance, inspection, monitoring the operation and
maintenance of dams, keeping a database of all dams, and recommending safety measures
to owners of dams.
 The owners of the specified dams are required to provide a dam safety unit in each
dam. This unit will inspect the dams before and after the monsoon session, and during
and after any calamity or sign of distress.
 Dam owners will be required to prepare an emergency action plan, and carry out risk
assessment studies for each dam at specified regular intervals.
 Dam owners will also be required to conduct a comprehensive dam safety evaluation of
each dam, at regular intervals, through a panel of experts.

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 9. Conclusion
Due to the increased public awareness of the hazards that could result from dams failures of
old dams or even new ones, procedures and actions are needed to reduce the threats they cause
to communities living in the downstream flood plains. Based on actual failure cases and the
related number of casualties new dam safety classification systems are adopted; these are
linked directly to the potential losses of lives and properties. It is also recognized that DAM
SAFETY has two major issues; these are: i. The safety of the dam structure itself, ii. The
safety of the population at risk (PAR). The first issue; for new dams the construction of such
dams should be allowed only after fulfilling all safety requirements of thorough geological and
hydrological investigations and deep analytical studies, preparation of safe designs, and by
following proper construction procedures, which are commensurate with the class of the
hazard classification of the dam under consideration. Thorough knowledge of case histories of
dam failures helps in avoiding previous mistakes and results in safer designs. For existing
dams safe operation and routine safety inspections and maintenance must be observed and
followed.

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9. References
1. Bureau of Indian Standards. IS 11223-1985 : Guidelines for Fixing Spillway Capacity.
1985.

2. Bureau of Indian Standards. IS 7323-1994 : Operation of Reservoirs - Guidelines. 1994.

3. Central Electric Authority, Government of India. Status of 50,000 MW Hydro Electric

Initiative. 2017. url: http : / / www . cea . nic . in / reports / monthly / hydro/2017/status
hydro initiative-04.pdf.

4. Central Water Commission. Guidelines for Safety Inspections of Dams. 1987.

5. Central Water Commission. Guidelines for Preparation of Emergency Action Plans. 2006.

6. Central Water Commission, Government of India. National Register of Large Dams.

2019.

7. Central Water Commission, Government of India. Training module on Dam Safety and

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