Dam Failure Lesson Learned: The study of past incidents and failures aids in the assessment of existing dams

The knowledge of many past dam failures and incidents provides the engineer reviewing the safety/risks of existing dams with a greater ability to identify weaknesses that could initiate, progress and fail a dam. This lesson learned explains how the study of past failures and incidents can support every step of the risk analysis process. If engineers purport to understanding how to keep dams safe, they need to know how they fail.