Course Catalogue.

After participating in this course, you will be able to:

• Gain a basic understanding of dam design, construction, operation, and maintenance, with a focus on the safe retention and passage of water.
• Understand the associated risks and the essential requirements of a dam safety program.

Description
Dams and their appurtenant structures are built for a variety of reasons, including flood protection, power generation, irrigation, industrial or mine residual waste storage and recreation. The importance of dam safety to the mining, industrial, infrastructure, and energy sectors of the Canadian economy cannot be overstated. Various regulatory and industry practices exist for dam design, operation, surveillance, and maintenance and dam owners, operators, and professionals need to understand the nature of the many aspects of safe dam design, performance monitoring, maintenance, rehabilitation, and upgrading of dams to ensure ongoing safe operation and performance.

This introductory course is aimed at all personnel involved with the design, management, operation, maintenance, surveillance, and rehabilitation of dams.

Course Outline

• Module 1: Why Dam Safety?
• Module 2: Principles of Dam Design
• Module 3: Dam Safety Governance
• Module 4: Performance Management of Dams
• Module 5: Risk Identification and Analysis
• Module 6: Critical Controls and Critical Control Management

Who Should Attend
Designers • Operators • Owners • Engineers • Consultants • Contractors • Individuals with an interest in dams for water and solid waste retention, flood control, and power generation

Course Syllabus

Module 1: Why Dam Safety?

• Types of dams
• How they fail - Case Histories.
• Canadian Dam Association and CDA Dam Safety Guidelines
• The Status of Dam Safety Regulations in Canada

Module 2: Dam Design

• Stability Evaluations: Concrete and embankment dams.
• Seepage, Piping and Internal Erosion: Concrete and embankment dams.
• Seismic Evaluations: Site Specific Hazard Analyses, Ground Response Analysis, Liquefaction Analysis.
• Flood Routing Basics: Flood Evaluations, Conveyance and Flood Routing Equipment, Flow Control Considerations
• Typical Design Criteria
• Risk Based Design – What does this mean, and how to apply it?

Module 3: Dam Safety Governance

• Basic Elements of a Dam Safety Management System
• Hazard Potential or Consequence Classification Systems
• Dam Safety Reviews: Frequency; Audit versus Comprehensive
• Dam Safety Inspections: Their role in dam safety governance.
• Operations, Maintenance and Surveillance
• Public Safety
• Emergency Preparation and Management

Module 4: Performance Management of Dams and Tailings Storage Facilities

• Performance Based Monitoring: Instrument Types and Reliability. 
• Establishing KPIs or performance baselines for dams
• Applications - Case Histories

Module 5: Risk Identification and Analysis

• Definition of Risk and Types of Risk.
• How low is low enough? Risk tolerance.
• Risk Identification and Risk Analysis in Dam Safety Management.
• FMEA, PFMA, Event Tree Analysis, Fault Tree Analysis, Bowties.
• Application to Dams.

Module 6: Critical Controls and Critical Control Management

• Critical Controls – Definition
• Layers of Protection Analysis
• Ranking and Prioritizing Performance Deficiencies
• Critical Control Management - a means to manage risk