Wieland, Martin (2006) Earthquake safety of existing dams. In: First European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, 03.09.2006-08.09.2006, Geneva.
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Abstract
In Europe and elsewhere the economically feasible water resources have been greatly developed until the 1970s. Although large dams belong to the first structures, which have been designed systematically against earthquakes since the 1930s, the seismic safety of these dams is unknown, as most of them have been designed using seismic design criteria and methods of analysis that are considered obsolete today. The fact that no major dams have failed during earthquakes and that few lives have been lost (except in the case of tailings dam failures) may give the impression that well-designed dams are safe against earthquakes. We need to re-evaluate the seismic safety of existing dams based on current state-of-the-art practice and rehabilitate existing dams if necessary. Additionally, there are a large number of smaller dams, especially earth structures, which were built for irrigation or water supply by organisations or villagers with little experience in dam construction. Earthquake effects on these dams have rarely been considered.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
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| Subjects: | Inducing technology > Reservoir impoundment |
| Project: | IS-EPOS project |