Preparing for dam-failure flooding

The development of special emergency plans in NSW. Keys, C. (1992) The ANCOLD Bulletin, 90, 15-24

There are in New South Wales (NSW) several dams, large and small, which have been identified as "deficient" and at some risk of failure - most of them because of spillway capacities not large enough to cope with probable maximum flood (PMF) conditions. In some cases, works programmes designed to correct the deficiencies have not yet been worked out while in others the remedial measures which are being taken are likely to take several years to complete. Either way, the consequence is that communities downstream of some dams will have to live for a time with the real, though remote, threat of the extreme flooding which inevitably would occur after dam failure. In some of these communities, public awareness of the potential problems is well developed. Not surprisingly, a level of public disquiet exists as to both the security of individual dam structures and the consequences which would follow should any of the dams be breached.

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