Project Execution Risk vs Infrastructure Performance Risk: A Critical Distinction for Dam Safety

ABSTRACT ONLY - As the state of dam safety practice advances to include dam safety risk management and dam safety risk-informed decision making, there is potential for dam owner decision makers to conflate or confuse dam safety risk with other project risks that may be more familiar. More familiar risks include construction cost risk, schedule risk, environmental risks, legal risks, or other types of Project Execution Risk. These forms of Project Execution Risk are distinctly different from Infrastructure Performance Risk, i.e., risk associated with the ability of the infrastructure to perform as intended. In the case of dams, the quintessential Infrastructure Performance Risk is dam safety risk.
Some hazards may cause Project Execution Risk (e.g., potential for increased cost and schedule delays) and also may cause Infrastructure Performance Risk (e.g., potential for life loss due to failure of a dam). Sometimes presentation of cost of construction change orders or construction delays vs the cost of a specific risk management strategy are presented to decision makers such that those decision makers can make risk-informed decisions and formulate appropriate risk management strategies. There is potential that decision makers miss that their decisions may impact more than Project Execution Risk and that Infrastructure Performance Risk also may be impacted by their decisions.
This paper highlights the importance of formulating and communicating risk management strategies separately for Project Execution Risk and Infrastructure Performance Risk. This differentiation is especially important when the same hazard may impact both types of risk. This differentiation will help dam safety engineers, project managers, cost estimators, schedulers, and agency decision makers better identify, communicate, and manage not only dam safety risk but also Infrastructure Performance Risks as a whole.