This webinar is intended to provide an introduction to emergency action plans (EAPs) for dam safety emergency planners, dam owners, dam regulators, and consultants. The information presented will be a condensed version of subjects included in ASDSO’s two-day seminar titled Emergency Action Planning for Dam Safety. The webinar will include information that will be useful to participants in developing new EAPs and improving the effectivene...

The Webinar will have four ½ hour sessions and will begin with a brief review of the Hydraulics 101 Lectures. Uniform flow, specific energy, and gradually varied flow will be covered in the first session. Hydraulic modeling and water surface profile computations will be covered in the second session and geometric data requirements will be addressed in the third session. The final session will concentrate on the development of the Hydro...

Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) is used to compute the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) that in turn is used by federal and state regulators to evaluate the safety of dams. The concept of an upper limit for precipitation was presented in the 1940’s with procedures for determining PMP values developed by the Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service), the US Army Corps of Engineers, and the Bureau of Reclamation. The definition o...

The Hydrology 201 Webinar consists of four one-half hour segments. The first segment is a brief review of Hydrology 101 emphasizing some of the important hydrologic issues. The second segment will concentrate on the NRCS procedures to determine the loss rate function and the dimensionless unit hydrograph as it is utilized to transform excess rainfall into runoff. Different methods of determining time of concentration and lag time will be cove...

The purpose of the webinar is to provide an overview of the process required to developing field investigation programs for design of new dams or rehabilitation of existing dams. The presentation will include the four phases that are typical of field investigations for new and existing dams. The presentation will highlight the important aspects of each phase from plan ning to execution, including defining the goals of each phase. Site Reconna...

The webinar will discuss the basics of various non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods and their applications for investigating dam, spillway and conduit conditions such as freeze-thaw cracking, void, seepage, corrosion of reinforcing, anchor bolts, strength/moduli, and stability. Guidance will be provided as to which NDE methods are useful for diagnosing various conditions of concrete, masonry, earthen and steel materials. The webinar will...

This webinar is a follow-up to the first in this series, Risk Assessment Basics for an Individual Dam. It is recommended that the two webinars be viewed in order if possible, and both are available in the On-Demand section of the website. Risk Management for a Portfolio of Dams explains how risk assessment is being used by some owners and regulators to improve the management of dam safety for a portfolio of dams in the context of the owner...

In 1980, Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) was utilized to construct the Willow Creek gravity dam in Oregon. Since that time, there have been over 200 RCC projects in the United States. With applications such as gravity dams, overtopping protection, buttresses, guide walls at locks, and service spillways, RCC has proven to be a durable and economical solution to difficult engineering problems throughout the US. Internationally, RCC gravity and...

The Webinar consists of two basic parts: • A history of filter design practice including theoretical design considerations • A step-by-step design process with criterion for the design of a critical filter for one example soil type The primary topics covered in the first part of the Webinar are: 1. Early filter designs that addressed only interparticle seepage and piping. 2. The historical research performed by Sherard et al to deve...

Fluid Mechanics provides the theoretical foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the engineering uses of fluid properties. Hydraulic topics include concepts such as pipe flow, dam design, pumps, hydropower, flow measurements, and open channel flow. The flow of water in an open channel in natural rivers is common, however, the solution to estimate water surface elevations can be a difficult problem when everything is considered, especially...