Dam engineering: The last 50 years, and the 50 years ahead

The British Dam Society Conference, held every two years, features the invited Geoffrey Binnie Lecture. Binnie was a renowned engineer remembered especially for leading the design of the major Mangla dam in Pakistan, inaugurated in 1967, almost 50 years ago. The author stepped onto his first construction site as a first-year student in the summer of 1966, exactly 50 years ago, and was invited to give the 2016 Binnie Lecture. The lecture is summarized in this article, which considers some of the major developments in dam engineering seen by the writer over the past 50 years and speculation about what the next 50 years might bring.