An International Perspective on the Selection of Inflow Design Flood
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 1
Abstract
Inflow design flood (IDF) is selected following certain guidelines or criteria for hydrologic dam design. Fundamental to the development of these guidelines is the classification of dams and consequences of failure thereof. The guidelines for the selection of an IDF for a dam may vary from one country to another and from state to state within the same country. The objective of selecting an appropriate IDF is to achieve dam safety and reduce the risk of dam failure and mitigate consequences of failure. Measures of safety, risk, and consequences are not uniform across the world. The objective of this study therefore is to provide an international perspective of the guidelines employed for the selection of IDF for dam design.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
No data, models, or code were generated or used during the study.
Acknowledgments
The senior author worked with Dr. Pedro Restrepo on inflow design flood and had many discussions with him. His insights, advice, and suggestions are gratefully acknowledged.
References
Australian Commission on Large Dams. 2012. Strategic framework for dam safety regulations. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Dept. of Environment and Primary Industries.
BIS. 1991. Guidelines for fixing spillway capacity. BIS 11223. New Delhi, India: BIS.
Center for Laws of Nigeria. 2014. National Environmental (dams and reservoirs) regulations. Nigeria: Center for Laws of Nigeria.
Central Water Commission. 2021. Guidelines for selecting and accommodating inflow design floods for dams. New Delhi, India: Central Dam Safety Organization, Government of India.
Chinese Ministry of Water Resources. 2006. Regulation for calculating design flood of water resources and hydropower projects. ICS93-160, P59, SL. Beijing: Chinese Ministry of Water Resources.
FEMA. 2004a. Federal guidelines for dam safety: Hazard potential classification system for dams. Washington, DC: FEMA.
FEMA. 2004b. Federal guidelines for dam safety: Selecting and accommodating inflow design floods for dams. FEMA P-94. Washington, DC: FEMA.
FEMA. 2012. Summary of existing guidelines for hydrologic safety of dams. Washington, DC: FEMA.
ICOLD (International Commission on Large Dams). 2018. Flood evaluation and dam safety, book # 170. Part of: ICOLD bulletins series, the commission internationale des Grands Barrages (CIGB). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Ministry of Water. 2020. Dam safety guidelines. Dar e Salam, Tanzania: United Republic of Tanzania.
Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Administration. 1992. Dam safety. Oslo, Norway: Water System Management Association.
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. 2011. “Classification and inflow design flood criteria.” In Technical Bulletin, 18. Toronto: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.
Petry, A., M. Bomfim, F. Laus, and A. Anderaos. 2018. “Classification of dams by its hazard potential: The experience of the Brazilian national water agency.” In Proc., 3rd Int. Dam World Conf., 1–9, Foz do Iguaco, Brazil: Brazilian Concrete Institute and Portuguese National Laboratory for Civil Engineering.
Singh, V. P. 2017. Handbook of applied hydrology. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
State of Washington Department of Ecology. 1993. Dam safety guidelines, Part IV: Dam design and construction. Lacey, WA: State of Washington Dept. of Ecology.
State of Washington Department of Ecology. 2018. Inventory of dams report for selected Washington counties and selected dam hazard categories. Lacey, WA: State of Washington Dept. of Ecology.
Swain, R. E., J. England, and D. Raff. 2006. Guidelines for evaluating hydrologic hazards. Denver: Bureau of Reclamation, US Dept. of the Interior, Denver Federal Center.
Swedenergy. 2007. Swedish guidelines for design flood determination for dams. New ed. 34. Stockholm, Sweden: Swedenergy.
Topcu, S., and H. Tosun. 2021. “An overview on total risk classifications for dams.” In Proc., Conf.: 5th Congress on Dams, Macold (Macedonian Committee on Large Dams), Struga, Macedonian: Macedonian Committee on Large Dams.
USACE. 1991. Inflow design floods for dams and reservoirs. ER 1110-8-2(FR). Washington, DC: USACE.
USACE. 2021. Dam safety program. Washington, DC: USACE.
Victoria Department of Environment and Primary Industries. 2014. Strategic framework for dam safety regulation. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: State of Victoria Dept. of Environment and Primary Industries.
Washington State Department of Ecology. 1993. Dam safety guidelines. Olympia, WA: Dam Safety Office, Water Resources Program.
Washington State Legislature. n.d. “Engineering design reports.” WAC 173-175-130. Accessed August 14, 2023. https://app.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=173-175-130.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 1 • February 2024
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 13, 2023
Accepted: Sep 12, 2023
Published online: Nov 17, 2023
Published in print: Feb 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Apr 17, 2024
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.