The ICOLD General Assembly met on-line on 30 November 2020. The meeting was chaired by ICOLD President Michael Rogers.

The impact of the pandemic on the activities of ICOLD was discussed. The Annual Meeting scheduled to take place in New Delhi, India has been re-scheduled to 2023.

The priority areas for the Board of ICOLD are:

• Dam safety
• National Committees
• Technical Committees
• Capacity building and
• Young Engineers

Three applications were received to join ICOLD, namely from Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Laos. These applications were approved, taking the total number of member countries to 104.

Two new Vice-Presidents were elected, namely Bernard Reverchon (France) and Dr Carlos Henrique Medeiros (Brazil).  ICOLD are calling for applicants for a new Vice-President for the Africa zone and one for ‘all zones’ to be appointed at the 2021 Congress. Also, the positions for ICOLD President and Vice-President are open for re-election in Marseilles. Michel de Vivo was re-appointed as the Secretary General. Tony Bennett, Alberto Scuero and Robin Charlwood were awarded an honorary membership of ICOLD.

Chengdu was voted to host the 2024 Congress. The future programme is therefore as follows:

• 2021: Marseilles, France (Congress)
• 2022: Gothenberg, Sweden
• 2023: New Delhi, India
• 2024: Chengdu, China (Congress)
• 2025: Shiraz, Iran

New guidelines on Technical Committees have been prepared and will be circulated to national committees. A new Technical Committee was agreed on the subject of ‘Residual Tropical Soils’.

Four new bulletins were approved for release:

• Integrated optimal operation of cascade hydropower stations and reservoirs
• Flood evaluation, hazard determination and flood management
• Dam failure – statistical analysis
• Current state of practice for risk-informed decision making in dams and levees.

Presentations were given by each ICOLD Zone. The European Zone presentation covered the activities of the following current Working Groups:

• Internal Erosion;
• Levees and Flood Defences;
• Dams and Earthquakes;
• Legislation.

There are two further new working groups:

• Overflowing and overtopping erosion; and
• Penstocks and Pressure Shafts

In addition, a ‘task force’ on ‘Dams and Territories’ seeks to address stakeholder perceptions of dams. Further details can be found here.