Usually, dam safety management has been carried out assuming stationary climatic and non-climatic conditions. However, the projected alterations due to climate change are likely to affect different factors driving dam risk. Although some reference institutions develop guidance for including climate change in their decision support strategies, related information is still vast and scattered and its application to specific analyses such as dam safety assessments remains a challenge.

Evolutive dam risk management driven by climate change impacts on risk components, including adaptation strategies

The paper Review article: Climate change impacts on dam safety contains a complete literature review of the multidisciplinary impacts of climate change affecting dam safety. In order to organize the different climatic and non-climatic effects, the structure followed for such a review is based on the risk modelling approach in which all the variables concerning dam safety and their interdependencies are included in a comprehensive way. The global effect can be assessed through the integration of the various projected effects acting on each aspect of the risk, from the input hydrology to the calculation of the consequences of the flood wave on population and assets at risk. This will provide useful information for dam owners and dam safety practitioners in their decision-making process.

Reference: Fluixá-Sanmartín, J., Altarejos-García, L., Morales-Torres, A., and Escuder-Bueno, I. (2018). Review article: Climate change impacts on dam safety. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 18(9), 2471–2488.

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