Guidelines for Dam Breach Analysis

The purpose of the guidelines is to assure consistency and consensus throughout the dam safety program during the performance of dam breach analysis. The document discusses the tools available for breach analysis, proposes a tiered approach to analyze dam breach floods and outlines recommendations for parameters to be input into breach models based on several hypothetical case studies. An extensive and exhaustive literature review of the current state-of-the-practice and reviews of the current procedures and analytical dam breach models were conducted in the development of these guidelines, which were peer reviewed by members of the dam design consultant community in Colorado. The guidelines are available for download, along with two spreadsheets designed to help engineers select appropriate breach parameters: "Estimation of Dam Breach Parameters Using the Froehlich 2008 Method" and "Estimation of Dam Breach Parameters Using the MacDonald & Langridge-Monopolis or Washington State Method."