Dam Breach Modelling Resources
Dam Breach Webinars and Courses
In partnership with the Australian Water School, we have developed a series of webinars and courses designed to provide dam breach modellers with essential background knowledge and assessment skills using the latest methodologies. Our two free webinars lead into our premium 2-hour webinar, which provides an introduction to software-specific dam breach modelling courses. Additional details and registration links for each component are provided below.
Free webinar:
Advances in Dam Breach Assessment
Our 8 May 2023 dam breach webinar was held in partnership with the Australian Water School. The interactive webinar featured a panel of expert presenters with extensive experience in developing dam breach assessment methodologies. Our presenters included David Froehlich, developer of the widely used Froehlich equations that are familiar to most dam breach modellers around the world. View the webinar recording or check out the Q&A transcript, presenter backgrounds, and other relevant webinar resources here.
in the webinar, Dr. Mayari Bernard-Garcia also presented a searchable database of almost 4,000 historical dam failures that were used to develop the published dam breach framework. The database is available for free download here.
Premium Webinar: Dam Breach Essentials
The May 2024 free webinar led into our June 2024 2-hour premium Dam Breach Essentials webinar, which is designed for practitioners who wish to undertake their own dam breach modelling exercises. Session recordings are available for on-demand registration here.
Tailings Dam Breach
We will also be holding a series of dam breach webinars in August 2024 specifically dedicated to tailings dams with non-Newtonian flow characteristics. Presenters include practitioners and developers of industry-standard software used for tailings dam breach modelling. Registration links are below;
Tailings Dam Failure Essentials Part 1: Understanding risks & consequences of tailings dam failure, unique modelling challenges, and recent advances
Tailings Dam Failure Essentials Part 2: Software developers’ guidance on selecting input parameters and tips for realistic tailings dam models
On-Demand Dam Breach Course
This on-demand online course steps attendees through the process of developing, running, and troubleshooting a dam breach model using free HEC-RAS software. In this course, you will build a dam across the Grand Canyon and breach it to see if it floods Las Vegas! Register for the course here and complete at your own pace. Additional modules covering dam breach modelling with TUFLOW, FLO-2D, FLOW-3D, BREACHER, and other software will be added throughout 2024.
Previous webinars
View our introductory dam breach webinar with Bill Syme, Chris Goodell, and Krey Price here. The webinar covers considerations for modelling reservoir drawdown, breach formation, and downstream flow routing.
Following are additional dam breach-related webinars hosted by the Australian Water School:
Dam breaches are typically modelled with fixed bed and Newtonian assumptions for simplicity, but they are highly dynamic events that are sometimes better represented with mobile boundary models and/or non-Newtonian assumptions. The webinars below provide some introductory material around sediment mobility in dynamic systems.
Dam failure scenarios often require the assessment of Probable Maximum Precipitation and the Probable Maximum Flood. The webinars below provide some background guidance around PMP and PMF estimates along with the impacts of climate change on extreme event hydrology. Stay tuned for additional upcoming webinars covering climate change, including new Australian guidance that results in substantial changes to the prediction of extreme events that will be of particular interest to dam owners. Be sure to subscribe to receive notification when future webinars are scheduled, including our upcoming webinar Worlds Largest Floods (most of which were caused by landslide dam breach or glacial lake outburst floods)
Additional Resources
- Read the article “Dammed if you don’t” written in response to the Brumadinho tailings dam failure
- Our 2023 AI webinar included an AI-aided rapid assessment of the Kakhovka Dam failure
- Click here for our page dedicated specifically to dam removal
- Join the dam failure assessment LinkedIn group
Webinar References
Following are references to selected materials provided in our dam breach webinars:
- Links to Dr. Bernard-Garcia’s research and presentation references:
– Historical dam breach database with almost 4,000 dam failures: https://doi.org/10.5683/SP2/E7Z09B
– PROBABREACH model description: https://publications.polymtl.ca/10833/
– Review and Updated Guidance for Embankment Dam Breach Parameters, Bernard-Garcia and Mahdi, 2021: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361062438_Review_and_Updated_Guidance_for_Embankment_Overtopping_Dam_Breach_Dimensions
– ICOLD World Register of Dams: https://www.icold-cigb.org/FR/registre_des_barrages/synthese_generale.asp
- ANCOLD papers on dam breach
Over 50 papers relating to dam breach are available to download from ANCOLD’s archives. The papers are compiled here. Note: There is a download fee of AUD $15 fee for each paper.
- First principles relevant to dam breach modelling
- Please contact us with any further queries regarding dam breach assessment
