Description
An increased number of dams during the last century has proved the necessity of these constructions toward all-around development of a country, also fulfills the needs of an ever-increasing population. The advent of rock mechanics, engineering geology, and better understanding of materials have made it possible to construct higher and larger dams and tackle difficult sites. On the other hand, the assumptions and risks involved in every theory used for dam design occur in the form of unexpected earthquakes and floods and geological surprises like faults or soft seams, which are either underestimated or missed during investigation. Incidents relating to dams are manageable at an early stage, whereas accidents, due to unknown and unforeseen factors, result in unexpected behavior of dams and catastrophic failures. Investigations conducted after a failure may not reveal the real reason behind it and most of the time, controversy exists between various studies carried out by experts. From the dams that do not fail, we learn nothing. Faults or fallacies, if any, remain undiscovered. We cannot afford failure but from the potential risk stage to the stage of accidents, monitoring the behavior and adopting a contrived approach would allow a hazard-management program to be implemented and loss of lives and properties to be minimized, apart from the true lessons that can be learned.
