Association of Dam Safety Officials

Monitoring programs provide the information necessary to understanding the on-going performance of the dam, as well as the ability to detect a change in this performance, which can be critical in identifying the need to take actions to avoid the consequences of a dam failure.

This webinar is designed to provide dam owners, emergency managers, and other relevant stakeholders with information needed to define and estimate loss of life consequences for dam failure scenarios.

This webinar will provide both examples of practical applications of USACE and Reclamation tolerable risk guidelines and a summary of the principles that underlie the basis for tolerable risk guidelines.

This webinar will focus on the many applications of RCC in dam engineering, including RCC dams, RCC overtopping protection, and RCC use in cofferdams.

Although major dams are not designed or intended to fail, the unexpected occurs with tragic consequences. In the unlikely event of such a tragedy, the legal system provides remedies to compensate the victims and their families for their losses.

Evaluation of potential seepage failure modes in embankment dams and in particular around outlet works penetrations is a very important aspect of dam safety evaluations.

This webinar provides an introductory discussion of the processes governing earth and vegetated earth spillway design and performance.

This Webinar is intended to provide an introduction to dam foundation grouting for dam regulators, owners, and consultants.

Webinar examples will illustrate hydraulic problems that were successfully solved using a physical model that may have been missed if a physical model was not utilized.

With the development in Europe in the later 1800s of a rational method for evaluating structural stability combined with practical experience, U.S. engineers gained greater confidence in increasing the structural height and loadings on masonry dams, as they were known then. This lead to record setting heights in the U.S. for several gravity dams built for water supply purposes for major U.S. cities.

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 effectiveness of existing EAPs.

The Webinar will stress the fundamental of hydraulics as applied to dam safety.

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 Hydrology 201 Webinar consists of four one-half hour segments. Please see the agenda for more information

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 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.

The role of risk assessment in strengthening both routine and non-routine dam safety activities will be described. The use of risk assessment for prioritized queues of investigations and risk-reduction measures to achieve more rapid and cost-effective risk reduction will also be described.

There is a growing recognition of the value of using risk assessment as a supplement to traditional engineering approaches to dam safety decision making. This is referred to as a risk-informed approach in which decision making utilizes information obtained from a risk assessment along with other factors, including good engineering practice.

This webinar will provide a general overview of the development of RCC and how this material is being used in dams and spillways. Recent design and construction trends will be presented in the areas of mix designs, jointing, facing systems, and placement procedures.

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

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 Webinar stresses the fundamentals of hydrology and is an introduction to the Hydrologic Processes. The class will stress the importance the fundamentals and their application to dam safety.

This webinar covers a number of useful empirical tools historically used for estimating the permeability and anisotropy values for a variety of soil types. It concentrates on estimates for higher permeability coarse-grained sands and gravels because they provide the more problematic seepage.

Quality control activities are important during the construction of an earth dam. The quality control program is intended to ensure that the compacted fill meets or exceeds all the specifications for the earth fill in the construction contract. The two primary specifications involve the degree of compaction and the acceptable range of water content for each zone in the compacted fill.

The erodibility factors used in SITES are the headcut erodibility index Kh and the detachment rate coefficient, kd. This Webinar provides guidance primarily on selection of Kh and kd parameters for soils.