Dam failure warning and evacuation planning

In NSW: Recent progress and the forward program. Keys, C. (1992) The ANCOLD Bulletin, 92, 31-38

Planning for the kinds of floods which would follow the failure of large water storage dams is relatively new in Australia. In New South Wales (NSW) it began in the late 1980s following the realisation, based on improved scientific comprehension of severe weather and flood events, that some dams had spillways which were incapable of safely passing very severe floods. For a time progress was slow as far as plan development was concerned but over the past year or two it has picked up significantly. Several plans, under preparation for a considerable length of time, have been completed to final draft stage and a number of new ones have been started. At the same time the 'rules' by which the planning is being done and on which responses to dam-failure would be based have been fine-tuned. Moreover, the shape of the future planning program and associated activities can be seen with increasing clarity.

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