Improving dam safety with a surveillance self-assessment toolkit

As dams may suffer a delayed safety-related incident at any age, dam failure prevention must be efficient during the whole life cycle of the dam, from impoundment to decommissioning. Improving the efficiency of dam surveillance is without any doubt the best strategy for risk attenuation. Reviewing the efficiency of existing surveillance operational structures allows for the identification of weaknesses of managerial and organizational arrangements for dam surveillance. It is a precedent for defining an efficient capacity building platform and a driven training plan focused on improvement priorities. This article concerns dam surveillance with a focus on non-structural measures and a special attention to small and medium dams.