Consider a dam on a relatively small river that discharges water over cliff and into a much larger river. In the Canadian Dam Association Guidelines 2007, Table 2-1 for dam classification talks only about downstream consequences of failure. Yet for this dam, the downstream consequence of dam failure are insignificant.
I would be loathe to call this a low risk dam because there actually are significant risks of flooding upstream, say if the flow control equipment doesn't work. The area along the riverbanks upstream of the dam contains a large permanent population. There is very little storage capacity in the reach upstream.
So how does one go about classifying such a dam?
I would be loathe to call this a low risk dam because there actually are significant risks of flooding upstream, say if the flow control equipment doesn't work. The area along the riverbanks upstream of the dam contains a large permanent population. There is very little storage capacity in the reach upstream.
So how does one go about classifying such a dam?