National Dam Safety Program Publications
The National Dam Safety Program provides a variety of publications, including:
- Research Needs Workshop Reports
- Technical Manuals, Guides and Reports
- Technical Advisories
- Safety Series Fact Sheets
- Response and Recovery (R&R) Dam Response Operations Matrices
- Dam Safety & Risk MAP/Flood Mapping Studies Fact Sheet Series
- DSS-WISE Fact Sheets
- FEMA P-1015, Technical Manual: Overtopping Protection for Dams (ZIP, 410MB)
Search for Dam Safety Publications
Search for documents below, or view our pages on Federal Guidelines, National Dam Safety Program Information, Resources for the General Public, or Resources for States.
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For this workshop, 35 national and international experts participated in discussions on research and new technology related to risk assessment, embankment dam failure, and flood routing. The experts identified 14 priority areas for research, including the updating, revision, and dissemination of the historic data set/database of dam failures; development of forensic guidelines and standards for dam safety expert use when reporting dam failures or dam incidents; creation of a forensic team that would be able to collect and disseminate valuable forensic data; identification of critical parameters for different types of failure modes; and basic physical research to model different dam parameters, such as soil properties and scaling effects, with the intent to verify the ability to model actual dam failure characteristics and extend dam failure knowledge using scale models.
This workshop report documents expert findings in three areas: risk analysis, standards, and meteorological needs. Risk analysis focuses on items relating to uncertainty factors that influence reservoir inflow values and the computation of the Annual Exceedance Probability (AEP) of extreme floods. Standards issues include physical factors that influence the methodology for the computation of extreme floods, including the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF). Meteorological needs focus on rainfall analysis from both the standards base analysis and a risk-based analysis, including precipitation analysis, rainfall frequency analysis, and real-time storm analysis.
This workshop report documents expert findings in three areas: risk analysis, standards, and meteorological needs. Risk analysis focuses on items relating to uncertainty factors that influence reservoir inflow values and the computation of the Annual Exceedance Probability (AEP) of extreme floods. Standards issues include physical factors that influence the methodology for the computation of extreme floods, including the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF). Meteorological needs focus on rainfall analysis from both the standards base analysis and a risk-based analysis, including precipitation analysis, rainfall frequency analysis, and real-time storm analysis.
Several areas for future development related to the impacts of plants and animals on earthen dams are documented in this report, including (1) the development of tools to educate dam owners and engineers on how to spot problems caused by plant and animal penetrations, how to prevent these problems from occurring, and how to mitigate or repair existing problems; (2) the analysis of tools and methods for repairing animal burrows on dams; and (3) collaboration with other groups, such as federal wildlife agencies that have research programs in place.
Several areas for future development related to the impacts of plants and animals on earthen dams are documented in this report, including (1) the development of tools to educate dam owners and engineers on how to spot problems caused by plant and animal penetrations, how to prevent these problems from occurring, and how to mitigate or repair existing problems; (2) the analysis of tools and methods for repairing animal burrows on dams; and (3) collaboration with other groups, such as federal wildlife agencies that have research programs in place.
This report addresses (1) outlet works failure modes, including failure by seepage and piping along the outlet works conduit; (2) conduit materials, selection criteria, and construction methods, including pipe material types and their advantages, disadvantages, and appropriate applications; (3) gates, valves, and controls, including types of gates and valves and their applications; (4) energy dissipaters, including stilling basins and energy dissipating valves; (5) rehabilitation of conduits, including in-place rehabilitation and replacement; and (6) outlet works inspection, including the determination of appropriate frequency; systems, methods, and techniques; and consideration of design criteria to accommodate inspection.
This report addresses (1) outlet works failure modes, including failure by seepage and piping along the outlet works conduit; (2) conduit materials, selection criteria, and construction methods, including pipe material types and their advantages, disadvantages, and appropriate applications; (3) gates, valves, and controls, including types of gates and valves and their applications; (4) energy dissipaters, including stilling basins and energy dissipating valves; (5) rehabilitation of conduits, including in-place rehabilitation and replacement; and (6) outlet works inspection, including the determination of appropriate frequency; systems, methods, and techniques; and consideration of design criteria to accommodate inspection.
This workshop report presents the detailed discussions of federal, state, and private sector experts on the three areas of risk assessment applications for dam safety: failure modes identification (qualitative approaches); portfolio risk assessment and index prioritization approaches (prioritization and portfolio approaches); and detailed quantitative approaches. The workshop participants recognized that stakeholders will have different information needs for their dam safety decisions. As a result, information that may play an essential role in a dam owner’s decision-making process may not be needed by a regulator who oversees the dam owner’s decision outcomes. Because the information needs of organizations vary widely, the workshop report acknowledges that it is not feasible for a single risk assessment approach to meet the needs of all organizations
This workshop report presents the detailed discussions of federal, state, and private sector experts on the three areas of risk assessment applications for dam safety: failure modes identification (qualitative approaches); portfolio risk assessment and index prioritization approaches (prioritization and portfolio approaches); and detailed quantitative approaches. The workshop participants recognized that stakeholders will have different information needs for their dam safety decisions. As a result, information that may play an essential role in a dam owner’s decision-making process may not be needed by a regulator who oversees the dam owner’s decision outcomes. Because the information needs of organizations vary widely, the workshop report acknowledges that it is not feasible for a single risk assessment approach to meet the needs of all organizations.
This workshop report documents expert consideration of (1) potential seepage problems and solutions associated with penetrations through embankment dams, e.g., outlet works conduits; (2) filter design criteria and observed performance; (3) inspection of dams for detection of seepage problems, failure modes associated with seepage and internal erosion, and analysis of risks associated with seepage and internal erosion; (4) investigation of seepage problems and concerns at dams, including the use of geophysical techniques, and instrumentation and measurements for evaluation of seepage performance; (5) remediation of seepage problems through cutoff, reduction of flow, and collection and control of seepage, including the use of geosynthetics; and (6) impacts of the aging of seepage control and collection system components on seepage performance.