Abstract
Communities are at threat because of the potential severe consequences of private dam failure. Such threat exists due to inadequate land use planning and safety assurance policy for water storage and downstream developments which must be integrated if lives and public and private property are to be saved. This paper aims to explore the interrelated policy, responsibility, cost-sharing and engineering issues associated with farm dam safety to mitigate failure threats to both existing and future downstream developments. Key insights into the design of best-practice integrated land use planning and safety assurance policy are provided based on (1) review of practice in Australia and internationally, underpinned by relevant theoretical principles, and (2) development of a cost-effective flood safety review/design tool to help policy-makers address cost sharing issues. The novel guidance and tool developed can help jurisdictions world-wide address the threats associated with farm dams and both existing and future land developments.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahmadi, A., Karamouz, M., Moridi, A., and Han, D., Integrated planning of land use and water allocation on a watershed scale considering social and water quality issues, J. Wat. Res. Planning Manag., 2012, vol. 138, no. 6, pp. 671–681.
Aretino, B., Holland, P., Matysek, A., and Peterson, D.C., Cost Sharing for Biodiversity Conservation: a Conceptual Framework, no. 31915, Canberra: Productivity Commission, 2001.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Authorities to Investigate Dam Wall failure, 2009; http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/12/2623340.htm, 2014.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australian Demographic Statistics, Cat. no. 3101.0, Canberra: ABS, 2010.
Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of BC(APEGBC), New Guidelines Aim to Address Dam Safety in BC,https://apeg.bc.ca/News/Articles/New-Guidelines-Aim-to-Address-Dam-Safety-in-BC, 2014.
Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD), Guidelines on Selection of Acceptable Flood Capacity for Dams, Hobart: ANCOLD, 2000.
Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD), Guidelines on Dam Safety Management, Hobart: ANCOLD, 2003.
Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD), Guidelines on the Consequence Categories for Dams, Hobart: ANCOLD, 2012.
Australian Emergency Management Institute (AEMI), Australian Emergency Management Handbook 7: Managing the Floodplain Best Practice in Flood Risk Management in Australia, Canberra: AEMI, 2014.
Baillie, C., Assessment of Evaporation Losses and Evaporation Mitigation Technologies for On Farm Water Storagesacross Australia, Irrigation Matters Series no. 05/08, Canberra: Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures, 2008.
Bocchiola, D. and Rosso, R., Safety of Italian dams in the face of flood hazard, Adv. Wat. Res., 2014, vol. 71, pp. 23–31.
Carlton, D. and Kandathil, H.A., Strategy to Reduce the Risks and Impacts of Dams on Floodplains, Washington: FEMA, ASFPM Working Group on Dams and Dam Risk Reduction Advisory Committee, 2013.
Climate Change in Australia (CCA), Climate Change in Australia—Temperature, Rainfall, Wind Speed, Solar Evaporation and See Surface Temperature Summary, Australian Government, CSIRO, Bureau of Meteorology, http://www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au/documents/resources/Summary_brochure.pdf, 2015.
Dams Safety Committee (DSC), Consequence Categories for Dams, SDC3A, Dams Safety Committee, http://www.damsafety.nsw.gov.au/DSC/Download/Info_Sheets_PDF/Dam/DSC3A.pdf, 2015.
Davies, E.G. and Simonovic, S.P., Global water resources modeling with an integrated model of the social–economic–environmental system, Adv. Wat. Res., 2001, vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 684–700.
Department of Primary Industries and Water (DPIW), Dam Safety Surveillance Reporting Guidelines, Tasmania: DPIW, 2009.
Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), Strategic Framework for Dam Safety Regulation, Melbourne: DSE Water Group, 2012.
Drane, K.W., Gattis, D.R., and Homewood, G.M., Hazard Mitigation Policy Guide, American Planning Association, https://www.planning.org/policy/guides/pdf/hazardmitigation.pdf, 2015.
DSO (Association of Dam Safety Officials), Summary of State Laws and Regulations on Dam Safety, Lexington: Association of State Dam Safety Officials, 2012.
DSO (Association of Dam Safety Officials), Top Issues Facing the Dam Community, Lexington: Association of State Dam Safety Officials, 2014.
Ellingwood, B., Corotis, R.B., Boland, J., and Jones, N.P., Assessing cost of dam failure, J. Wat. Res. Planning Management, 1993, vol. 119, no. 1, pp. 64–82.
Engels, J., Stava Tailings Dam Failure near Trento Italy, www.tailings.info/stava.htm, 2013.
Engineers Australia (EA), Australian Rainfall and Runoff Discussion Paper: an Interim Guideline for Considering Climate Change Rainfall and Runofff, AAR D3, Barton: Engineers Australia, 2014.
Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA), Dam Safety in the United States: a Progress Report on the National Dam Safety Program Fiscal Years 2006 and 2007, FEMA O-759, National Dan Safety Program, Washington, 2009.
Fish, E., The forgotten legacy of the Banqiao Dam Collapse, Economic Observer, 2013.
Foster, M., Fell, R., and Spannagle, M., The statistics of embankment dam failures and accidents, Can. Geotech. J., 2000, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 1000–1024.
Graham, W.J., A Procedure for Estimating Loss of Life Caused by Dam Failure, Office Report DSO-99-06, Dam Safety, Denver: United States Dept of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, 1999.
Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (HIDLNR), Kaloko Reservoir Fact Sheet, Fact Sheet no. KA0030, Honolulu: Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, 2010.
Hobart Legal (HL), Tasmanian Law Handbook, Community Legal Service Inc., Hobart, 2014.
International Water Power and DC(IWP&DC), Living with the risk of failure, http://www.waterpowermagazine.com/features/featureliving-with-the-risk-of-failure-4145901, 2013.
Institution of Engineers (IEAust), Australian Rainfall and Runoff—a Guide to Flood Estimation, Canberra, Australia: Institution of Engineers, 1999.
International Rivers (IR), Dammed Rivers, Damned Lives, IR, Berkeley, http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/attached-files/irfactsheet_dammed_rivers_lores.pdf, 2013.
Judi, D.R., Burian, S.J., and McPherson, T.N., Impacts of elevation data spatial resolution on twodimensional dam break flood simulation and consequence assessment, J. Wat. Res. Planning Management, 2012, vol. 140, no. 2, pp. 194–200.
Kangaroo Island Council (KI), Farm Dam Approval, KI Council., http://www.kangarooisland.sa.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/Farm%20Dam%20Approval.pdf, 2013.
KPMG, Review of the Dams Safety Act 1978 and Dams Safety Committee-Final Report, Sydney: NSW Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services, 2013.
Maddock, J., Draft Planning Directive, No1 Submission, Tasmania: Planning Commission, 2010.
Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations (MFLNRO), Flood Hazard Area Land Use Management Guidelines, MFLNRO, http://www.env.gov. bc.ca/wsd/public_safety/flood/pdfs_word/guidelines2011.pdf, 2014.
OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), The Polluter Pays Principle–Definition, Analysis, Implementation, Paris: OECD, 1975.
Pisaniello, J.D., How to manage the cumulative flood safety of catchment dams, Wat. SA, 2009, vol. 35, pp. 361–370.
Pisaniello, J.D., A comparative review of environmental protection policies and laws involving hazardous private dams: “Appropriate” practice models for safe catchments, William and Mary: Environ. Law Policy Rev., 2011, vol. 35, pp. 515–581.
Pisaniello, J.D., Argue, J.R., and McKay, J.M., Flood capability design/review of dams on small catchments—a simple and cost-effective regionalised procedure, Austral. J. Wat. Res., 1999, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 177–188.
Pisaniello, J.D. and McKay, J.M., Spillway Design and Review Procedures for Australian Farm Dams, Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation, no. 04/051, Canberra: Australian Govt press, 2004.
Pisaniello, J.D. and McKay, J.M., A tool to aid emergency managers and community in private dam safety appraisal, Disasters, Int. J. Disaster Studies, Policy Management, 2007, vol. 31, pp. 176–200.
Pisaniello, J.D., Tingey-Holyoak, J., and Burritt, R.L., Appropriate small dam management for minimising catchment-wide safety threats: International benchmarked guidelines and demonstrative cases studies from Australia, Wat. Res. Res., 2012, vol. 48, W01546, doi 10.1029/2011WR011155.
Pottinger, L., A flood of dam safety problems, World Rivers Rev., 2010.
Raje, D. and Mujumdar, P.P., Reservoir performance under uncertainty in hydrologic impacts of climate change, Adv. Wat. Res., 2010, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 312–326.
Reitsma, R., Zigurs, I., Lewis, C., Wilson, V., and Sloane, A., Experiment with simulation models in water-resources negotiations, J. Wat. Res. Planning Management, 1996, vol. 122, no. 1, pp. 64–70.
Sheer, D.P., Dysfunctional water management: causes and solutions, J. Wat. Res. Planning Management, 2009, vol. 136, no. 1, pp. 1–4.
The Associated Press, Death toll rises to 96 in Indonesia dam failure, The Associated Press, www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29937788/, 2009.
Tingey-Holyoak, J. and Pisaniello, J.D., The challenge of balanced policy and law for socially responsible water storage management, Soc. Responsibility J., 2015, vol. 11, no. 4.
Warner, A., Opperman, J.J., and Pietrowsky, R., A call to enhance the resiliency of the Nation’s watermanagement, J. Wat. Res. Planning Management, 2011, vol. 137, pp. 305–308.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The article is published in the original.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pisaniello, J.D., Tingey-Holyoak, J.L. Best practice land use planning and cost-effective tools to assure safety downstream of private dams. Water Resour 43, 730–742 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0097807816040126
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0097807816040126