Management systems, systems analysis and risk analysis in dam safety

This paper outlines general management and specific engineering arrangements that enable the ongoing transition of dam safety assessment and management practices to the more comprehensive, reliable and informative systems approach to the analysis of dam functions, and the performance and risk informed safety assessment and management of dams. It also outlines a basis for this transition to risk-informed dam safety practices, which requires a more general philosophy for dam engineering and management, involving an organized and fully general systems theory-based scientific means of analysing and assessing dam safety.