What is BDS?
The British Dam Society (BDS) is an Associated Society of the Institution of Civil Engineers. It consists of individual and corporate members. It is open to anyone wanting to share experience or knowledge of all aspects of dams and reservoirs.
Events
BDS Movie – A Career in Dam Engineering
BDS News
Next BDS evening meeting - Monday 12th July 2021
The next BDS evening meeting is ‘The History and Development of the London Storage Reservoir System’ on Monday 12th July 2021 presented by Bryn Philpott of Thames Water. The meeting will be held online starting at 6pm. More information and a link for the meeting can be found on the BDS website ‘Events Calendar’ page.
Supervising Engineers’ Forum – Thursday 16th September 2021 (Action Needed)
The BDS 15th Supervising Engineers’ Forum will take place on Thursday 16th September 2021. The BDS still hopes that this can be an in-person event at the University of Nottingham. If this is not possible then the forum will be held as an online event with a number of different technical sessions and a discussion period. Registration for this event will commence on Monday 2nd August.
Independent Reservoir Safety Review Report
An independent review of reservoir safety legislation and its application was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2020 and was led by Professor David Balmforth.
The review report, published on 13 May 2021, provides a comprehensive assessment of the current safety regime in England. It makes recommendations for improving the safety regime and to strengthen the roles and responsibilities for the regulator, reservoir owners and engineers.
Reservoir on-site emergency flood plans
A ministerial direction to undertakers in relation to reservoir on-site flood plans for large raised reservoirs in England was published on 22nd April 2021.
Following the publication of the direction the BDS held an evening meeting on Monday 26th April 2021 titled “Emergency Planning for Reservoirs”. The first part of this meeting heard from Jan Kiernan (Defra) and Tony Deakin (Environment Agency) who explained the new requirements and what is now needed from owners and engineers. A recording of this meeting can be found in the ‘Listen Again’ page of the BDS website.
Independent Reservoir Safety Review Report
An independent review of reservoir safety legislation and its application was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2020 and was led by Professor David Balmforth.
The review report, published on 13 May 2021, provides a comprehensive assessment of the current safety regime in England. It makes recommendations for improving the safety regime and to strengthen the roles and responsibilities for the regulator, reservoir owners and engineers.
Reservoir on-site emergency flood plans
A Ministerial Direction to require on-site flood plans for large raised reservoirs in England was issued to all undertakers on 22nd April 2021. A copy of which has been put onto www.gov.uk for reference and information.
Here are links to the Ministerial Direction and the associated guidance documents.
Ministerial Direction – requirement for reservoir on-site emergency flood plans
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reservoir-on-site-flood-plans-ministerial-direction
Guidance documents
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reservoir-emergencies-on-site-plan
Royal Society special issue - Intensification of short-duration rainfall extremes and implications for flash flood risks
Royal Society Publishing has recently published a special issue of Philosophical Transactions A entitled Intensification of short-duration rainfall extremes and implications for flash flood risks organised and edited by Hayley Fowler, Conrad Wasko and Andreas F Prein and the articles can be accessed directly at www.bit.ly/TransA-2195.
Next evening meeting
Our next on-line evening meeting together with the AGM is on 26 April at 6pm. This will be followed by a presentation on Emergency Planning for Reservoirs. Further details including the full list of presenters will be made available on our website shortly.
Extreme flood research
The Environment Agency has started a new project which aims to improve Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) and Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) estimation for reservoir safety.
The project aims to assess the suitability of existing methods for estimating PMP and PMF and develop new methods and guidelines to ensure that we understand the risk posed to our highest risk reservoirs from extreme flood events. You can find further details here. Please click "Read More" for more information.
NRW position statement on risk designation and first inspection of statutory reservoirs in Wales
Natural Resources Wales have recently published an important position statement relating to the processes for risk designation and first inspection of statutory reservoirs of between 10,000 – 25,000m3 capacity. You can find the document here.