A Farmer-Friendly Dam Safety Evaluation Procedure As A Key Part of Modern Australian Water Laws

Abstract

The largest dams are generally built and managed by Governments; individual owners build small dams. Over time, many dam safety aspects have changed, such as population distributions, meteorological information, engineering methods and design standards, together with the condition of the dams, raising serious doubts about dam adequacy. For the larger dams response has been to spend vast amounts on remedial works. Unfortunately, only a few countries have developed mature safety assurance schemes for smaller dams: these are comparatively reviewed here identifying elements of “minimum” and “best” practice, and providing policy models and guidelines of “appropriate” practice for varying circumstances. Farmers often overlook common law obligation to review/design dams in line with current standards because of high engineering consulting costs. A cost-effective spillway design/review procedure that is applicable to South Eastern Australia, but is transferable to any other region world-wide, is also reported here: this procedure is integrated with the policy models and guidelines, aiming to minimize cost burdens to dam owners, encourage better dam safety management, and provide an acceptable level of safety assurance to downstream communities.