Review of the impact of climate change on dams and reservoirs

This project considers the nature and range of physical impacts of climate change and how these might affect dam and reservoir safety.

From:
Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Programme and Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Published
22 February 2021
Category:
Understanding risks from all sources of flooding
Topics:
Asset maintenance, Asset monitoring, Asset performance, Climate change, Design and build, Deterioration, Reservoirs, Resilient infrastructure
Project status:
Completed
Project code:
FD2628
Date of completion:
31 March 2011

Documents

Impact of climate change on dams and reservoirs - final report (4 MB) PDF

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Details

Background

The floods in 2007 highlighted the need for effective infrastructure management. One key concern was the integrity of dams and reservoirs. Ulley reservoir was one of the 18 reservoirs considered in terms of the potential consequences of dam failure.

The average age of existing reservoir stock is 110 years. Climate change and more extreme weather events are likely to increase the risks associated with structural integrity, operational management and potential failure. This means that there’s a need for a comprehensive review of the impacts of climate change on dams and reservoirs.

Objectives

The project considers the nature and range of physical impacts of climate change and how these might affect dam and reservoir safety in terms of:

  • the physical infrastructure
  • operational management
  • statutory duties
  • the risks to downstream communities, properties and infrastructure
  • the effects on the wider society that depends on reservoir services (for example, water supply)

The objectives of the project are to:

  • identify and attempt to quantify the likely impacts of climate change on dams and reservoirs on a regional basis using relevant science - including the UKCP09 climate change projections
  • develop a framework for measuring and including identified impacts and uncertainty
  • produce guidance on methods for incorporating the identified impacts into dam assessment, design, maintenance and planning
  • advise on how policy should be altered

Findings

In most cases, the form of the dams is resilient to the effects of climate change if the dam and ancillaries are well engineered with an appropriate factor of safety. However, vulnerabilities do occur. These are normally specific and often result from:

  • complex, interconnected effects that occur because of specific weaknesses in the form
  • impacts on function that can place the form at risk

The guidance has been developed to try and include these complexities and relationships.

This project ran from 2009 to 2011 and cost £125,000.

Updates to this page

Published 22 February 2021
Contents