Position paper on dam safety and earthquakes

This position paper discusses the ability of a dam to withstand extreme earthquake action without failure, and sets out recommendations and guidelines for building dams and appurtenant structures that can withstand the effects of strong tremors. It also calls for effort to be made to collect, analyse and interpret observations of dam performance during earthquakes, and draws experience from the large Wenchuan and Chile earthquakes to improve the seismic safety assessment of existing dams and the design of new dams in the future. The paper was approved at the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) annual meeting in Hanoi in May 2010; and was prepared by the Committee on Seismic Aspects of Dam Design. It was revised August 2012.