Latest News

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Thank you all for your continued support over the past 12 months, including another successful conference in Keele. We’d like to take this opportunity (for those who celebrate) to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Have a great time over the holidays and we look forward to another successful year in 2025.  

Chair and Vice Chair Nominations

You should already have received an email about the upcoming elections for the positions of Chair, and Vice Chair of the BDS Main Committee. Nominations for these positions can be made until the 14th December 2024, please put every effort into completing your nominations before this date with elections taking place at the 2025 AGM to be held on the 28th April. For those still to make their nominations, they can be made under the following link: Expression of Interest for BDS Chair and Vice Chair.  

Next BDS Event 

At One Great George Street on the 6th January we shall be having our first in person event of 2025. Further details on the event can be found here and will be made available closer the time.   

Save the date – Next Supervising Engineers Forum

The next Supervising Engineers Forum will be held at the National Conference Centre in Birmingham on Thursday 18th September 2025. We have prepared a short questionnaire to compile ideas and thoughts on the content of the 2025 SE forum – please use the following link - Supervising Engineer’s Forum - pre-event questionnaire

If you wish to participate in the event and have an idea on a presentation, then please do contact John (john.r.foster@mottmac.com) and Mark (mark.colledge@mottmac.com) with your proposal – we will issue a call for presentations again, separately in the New Year.

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The Earthworks Conference 2025 is being held at the University of Birmingham between the 16th and 17th September 2025. Abstract submission is now open, with a variety of themes available for discussion, more information can be found here.

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Nominations for YP committee positions can also be made until the 14th December 2024, please put every effort into completing your nominations before this date with elections taking place at the 2025 AGM being held on the 28th April. For those still to make their nominations, they can be made under the following link: Expression of Interest for YP Chair and YP Committee roles.  

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The 31st EWG on IE and the 6th EWG on OOE will be taking place at the University of Brno between 23rd and 28th June 2025. Now is the time to start preparing your abstracts with more details to come soon.  

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The EA has released the Post Incident reporting for reservoirs 2023. The report can be found here.

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Chengdu in China will be hosting the 28th ICOLD Congress and 93rd Annual Meeting in May 2025. This promises to be a very interesting event, particularly bearing in mind some of the impressive dams that have and are currently being constructed in China. More details can be found here. 

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At One Great George Street on the 18th November Julian Welbank (SE), Dominic Molyneux (ARPE), Chris Scott (ARPE) will be presenting discussion papers on: The Changing Role of the Supervising Engineer; The Construction Engineer and Panel of Specialists; and Quality and Safety of Reservoirs. More information can be found here.

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The Earthworks Conference 2025 is being held at the University of Birmingham between the 16th and 17th September 2025. Abstract submission is now open, with a variety of themes available for discussion, more information can be found here.

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Hydro 2024 is being held in Graz, Austria between the 18th and 20th November 2024. With a growing number of pumped hydro schemes being developed and gaining headlines in the UK, this could be of interest to those involved or wishing to learn more. Further details can be found here.  

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The ASDSO has a series of webinars that can be either streamed and watched live or can be watched on demand. These webinars cover a variety of different dam engineering topics and can be very useful. One of their recent webinars was on ‘Tools for Designing and Assessing Spillways’. More information can be found here. 

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An online dissemination event is being planned for early 2025 as part of Defra and the Environment Agency's Reservoir Safety Reform Programme. This follows on from Darren Shaw’s presentation and paper at the BDS conference about the project development. The session will give more insight into the proposals for a new hazard classification and safety management system for England and Wales. The date and time of the event will be confirmed in due course.

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Thank you to those who have registered for the BDS conference. We can confirm that we have about 300 delegates signed up to the event, inclusive of 17 exhibitors. Thank you to our confirmed Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze sponsors for committing to support the event.

Main delegate tickets SOLD OUT prior to the closure of ticket sales.

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The British Dam Society 22nd Biennial Conference will be held at the University of Keele (Chancellors Building) from Wednesday 11th until Saturday 14th September 2024.

Registration for this event will close on Sunday 28th July 2024 (midnight).

Currently more than 260 delegates and 16 exhibitors are confirmed to be attending. As of writing, there are fewer than 30 tickets remaining.

>>> The British Dam Society 22nd Biennial Conference <<<

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The British Dam Society 22nd Biennial Conference will be held at the University of Keele (Chancellors Building) from Wednesday 11th until Saturday 14th September 2024.

Registration for this event is now open and will close on Sunday 28th July 2024 (midnight). Register now to secure your spot. Currently more than 180 delegates and 15 exhibitors are confirmed to be attending.

>>> The British Dam Society 22nd Biennial Conference <<<

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The British Dam Society 22nd Biennial Conference will be held at the University of Keele (Chancellors Building) from Wednesday 11th until Saturday 14th September 2024.

Registration for this event is now open and will close on Sunday 28th July 2024 (midnight). 

>>> The British Dam Society 22nd Biennial Conference <<<

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The 7th meeting of the European working group shall be in Athens between the 12th and 13th September 2024. For more information, please refer to the following link.  

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Given the current tense international situation, the 2026 annual meeting in Iran has been postponed. A lot of delegates will be unable to travel to Iran and several embassies are not allowing their nationals to travel to Iran or are advising against it.  

In this context, the Mexican Committee has graciously agreed to bring forward to 2026 the Annual Meeting originally scheduled for 2027. 

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Service Reservoirs (Thames Water)

The next technical meeting, which is entitled “The Service Reservoir – More than just a concrete box” will be presented by Jon Green and Bryn Philpott of Thames Water on the 8th of July 2024. The meeting will take place online, and at our various hubs across the country, more information can be found on the Events page. Please note that One Great George Street is currently closed for refurbishment so there will not be any in-person meeting.  

BDS Conference, 2024

The next biennial conference will be held at Keele University from Wednesday 11th to Saturday 14th September 2024. Registration for the event is now open. Information on the conference and how to register as a delegate, exhibitor and/or sponsor can be found here.

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The next EWG on Internal Erosion and Overflow and Overtopping Erosion will be held in Bologna, Italy between the 9th and 13th September 2024. Unfortunately, the date of these meetings clashes with the next BDS conference. However, should you wish to attend warmer climes both meetings will be organized by the Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna. The deadline for abstracts is 30th June 2024. More information is available here.

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The ICOLD European Club (EurCOLD) has announced that the inaugural European Dam Day will be held on 29th May 2024. The aims of the day include raising public awareness about dams, promoting careers in the industry to students and young professionals, and encouraging networking between those in the profession. Events organised by national committees will be held across Europe. The BDS will be supporting the event with a social media campaign over that week. We encourage the membership to engage with the posts and spread the information across their networks.

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The annual ICOLD European Club newsletter has just been published. It includes summaries of activities undertaken last year, including the 91st ICOLD meeting in Gothenburg, news from different national committees and activities ahead in 2024. More information can be found under the following link.

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The Environment Agency has published new guidance for inspecting engineers relating to the inspection of high risk reservoirs, which can be accessed here. This update reflects the recommendations made in the Independent Reservoir Safety Review. The Environment Agency has worked with the ICE Panel Engineers Committee and consulted the wider engineering community. 

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The International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) confers the International ICOLD Innovation Awards for innovative scientific and technical contributions, in the field of dams and reservoirs with special focus on their role in sustainable water resources management under consideration of environmental constraints. More information and details on how to apply can be found here.

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At the 2024 conference the BDS wishes to reflect on how in recent years the industry has refocused to better understanding the risks associated with our dams and reservoirs and also try to understand the impacts climate change will have on the industry in future. 

Papers are invited to cover examples of and developments in the following topics: 

• Risk assessments – research, case studies and guidance
• Reducing risks - mitigations/improvements
• Risks and impacts associated with climate change 
• Service reservoirs and small raised reservoirs 
• Legislation and guidance 
• Developments of Reservoir Safety Management Plans (RSMP)

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The National Framework for Water Resources published by the Environment Agency in 2020, and the more recent regional water resource plans and water company Water Resource Management Plans consulted on in 2023 include the development of new water resources including over 10 new reservoirs over the next 25 years.  

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The 7th meeting of the European working group shall be in Athens between the 12th and 13th September 2024. For more information, please refer to the following link.  

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The results of the BDS prize competition were announced on the 20th November 2023. Thank you to our finalists Daniel Morris- Stantec, Thomas Rigby – United Utilities, Emily Hale – Mott Macdonald, Veronika Martin- Arup, Matt Craig – Mott Macdonald, who presented their papers with great confidence and answered many questions from the audience on the night.

Thank you to all those who entered; the BDS has been impressed by the high standard of entries this year.

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CIRIA has released a new guidance document entitled ‘Siphons in dams – design, installation, operation, management and testing (C813)’ a link to more information can be found here.

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CIWEM are hosting an online webinar about the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam on 3rd October 2023. Information about the event can be accessed here. This lunchtime webinar is produced in collaboration with the CIWEM Rivers & Coastal group, the CIWEM Welsh Branch, and Arcadis. The panellists will discuss the global engineering response to the 2023 breach of the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine.

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The Environment Agency has published its annual post-incident report on reservoir safety incidents in England. Six incidents are included in the report, which can be found here. 

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The 9th International Symposium on Roller Compacted Concrete Dams and Cemented Material Dams will be held from 4th to 8th December 2023, in Guangzhou City, China. It is co-organized by the JCOLD, SPANCOLD, CFBR and CHINCOLD. Symposium information can be found by visiting the event website.

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Technical Meetings
The next BDS evening technical meeting will be on 2nd October 2023. This will be held at the ICE in London. The topic to be presented on in the evening shall be the discontinuance of reservoirs. 

Site Visits
The BDS site visit to Toddbrook is fast approaching and will be held in February 2024.

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The Environment Agency are currently developing the Reservoir Safety Reform Programme in response to the recommendations set out in the Independent Reservoir Safety Review Report by Professor Balmforth. A dedicated website has been launched that provides updates on programme progress, to find out more about this, a link to the website can be found here. 

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Today is the final day of registration for the Supervising Engineers' Forum, which will take place on the 7th September 2023.

>>> Click here to register <<<

The 2023 Supervising Engineers' Forum will be held on Thursday 7th September 2023. Registration for the event is open. Further details including how to register can be found here.

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Registration for the Supervising Engineers’ Forum is now open. We are pleased to inform you that the forum will be an in-person event at the National Conference Centre Birmingham on Thursday 7th September 2023. Registration to this event can be completed on the SE Forum page of the BDS website.

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The ICE will host an online presentation about the Teton dam failure on 23rd May 2023 at 6pm. More information about this event is available at https://www.ice.org.uk/events/latest-events/teton-dam-failure-1976.

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The 2023 Photography Competition is now open. Entries will close on the 25th August 2023. The prizes will be awarded at the SE Forum on the 7th September 2023. Information about the competition can be found here.

BDS members will be able to access the competition upload portal via the Members Area on the website.

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An update on progress with the Reform Programme was published by Defra and the Environmental Agency on 6th April. The update can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defra-and-the-environment-agency-reservoir-safety-reform-programme-update

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Registration is still open for the 91st ICOLD Annual Meeting to be held in Gothenberg, Sweden from 11th to 15th June 2023.  The BDS would like to encourage as many of its members to attend this event as possible given its European location. A full programme of events and details for registration are on the event website. Early Bird registration rates are available until 27th March 2023.

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The Environment Agency’s National Reservoir Safety Team (NRST) has issued guidance notes to engineers and undertakers of registered high risk, large raised reservoirs in England. The NRST will be reviewing non-compliances of Section 11 and 10(5A) of the Reservoirs Act 1975 (‘the Act’) against its enforcement and prosecution policy, after seeking further information from the undertaker.  Enforcement responses may range from advice and guidance, formal warning or prosecution. These offences will be recorded in the Reservoir Safety Compliance report, which will be published annually from 2024. 

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The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) have added more offences that can result in Fixed Monetary Penalties (FMP’s) of between £300 and £1,000 to reservoir managers who fail to meet their statutory duties. 

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The BDS bibliography of British Dams has recently been updated by Paul Tedd to include relevant papers published in the proceedings of the 2022 BDS Conference, and in recent issues of Dams and Reservoirs.  The latest version can be found here.

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The 92nd Annual Meeting of ICOLD & Symposium Dams for People, Water, Environment and Development is to be held from September 29th to October 3rd, 2024 in New Delhi. The call for abstracts has now been released with a deadline of 31st December 2023. Full details are available on the event website: https://www.icold2024.org/#/home

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ICOLD have requested proposals for questions for the 2025 Congress in Chengdu, China. Please forward any suggestions to David Neeve (david.neeve@arup.com) by Friday 10th February 2023. The BDS Committee will compile and submit up to eight questions to the ICOLD organising committee. Further details and a list of previous questions are available on the ICOLD website here.

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The University of Sheffield hosted the 28th annual European Working Group on Internal Erosion from 18th to 21st July 2022. The abstracts from the meeting have now been published and are available to download here.

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Experience of RCC dam design or construction?  The BDS is looking for succession for the current long-standing member of the committee.  Please contact David Neeve (david.neeve@arup.com) or Andrew Thompson (andrew.thompson2@uuplc.co.uk) to express your interest.

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The BDS Prize Competition for young professionals is open to BDS members under 35 years of age. The next competition will take place on 20th November 2023 at the Institution of Civil Engineers.

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The 2023 Supervising Engineers' Forum now has a confirmed date of Thursday 7th September 2023. We would like to invite the submission of synopses outlining the content for presentation by Friday 7th July 2023. We anticipate that registration for the forum will open in early July. Further details on the forum and the anticipated topic areas are available here.

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The BDS Young Professionals (YP) Group comprises all the under-35 members of the British Dam Society (BDS). It exists to facilitate professional development opportunities for young professionals, technicians and students working in the industry. 

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Invitations to stand for election onto the BDS Committee as an elected member for 2023 to 2026 are currently open. There are currently two posts available on the BDS Committee to commence immediately after the AGM in April 2023.

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We are delighted to announce the new BDS Chair and Vice Chair appointments. Following our AGM on 24th April 2023, Rachel Davies of Binnies will become Chair. Dr Darren Shaw of Arup will take on the role of Vice Chair. The appointments will last for two years. We wish them every success.

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The 2023 Supervising Engineer Forum now has a confirmed date of Thursday 7th September 2023. The forum will return to The National Conference Centre in Birmingham (adjacent to the National Motorcycle Museum, Solihull). Further details regarding the event including a call for papers and registration links will be issued in due course.

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The charging scheme in Wales has been in place since 2017 and is currently open to public consultation on some of the changes proposed to the registration and notification fees. Whilst this predominantly affects undertakers in Wales, BDS members may also wish to contribute: Consultation on our regulatory fees and charges for 2023/2024.

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The Environment Agency is conducting research to better understand how open methods could be adopted for operational flood hydrology. This includes both flood estimation for design / planning and flood forecasting.  The project covers flooding from rivers, surface water, groundwater and reservoirs. The project is seeking to identify the benefits, risks and requirements for moving towards approaches that use open methods.

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Last week saw 280 attendees and 12 exhibitors at our 21st Biennial conference held in Nottingham. It had been four years since the last conference in Swansea and it was fantastic to see the reservoir safety community back together again. Over the three and a half days there were 24 technical presentations, 4 site visits, 16 workshops and a packed evening social programme including the new exhibitor reception, YP Quiz and a fantastic the Geoffrey Binnie lecture by Tim Hill.

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The next evening event on the forthcoming CIRIA guide covering ‘Design, installation, operation, management and testing of siphons in dams’ will be held on Monday 3rd October 2022. This event will be held at the ICE Building at One Great George Street as well as streamed live. 

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The 2022 British Dam Society Photography competition is now open. This is your chance to have your photograph published in the Dams and Reservoirs Journal, BDS Yearbook and featured on the BDS website. There are also cash prizes to be won, with a 1st prize of £200, 2nd prize of £100 and 3rd prize of £50. The competition is open to members of the BDS, ICE, Engineering Students and all staff of Corporate BDS members. Photographers are entitled to submit two photographs.

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The 91st ICOLD Annual Meeting will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden between 11th and 15th June 2023. Abstracts for the meeting should be submitted to ICOLD by 16th October 2022. Details of the event, topics and abstract requirements can be found on the ICOLD-CIGB 2023 website

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The 2022 British Dam Society Photography competition is now open. This is your chance to have your photograph published in the Dams and Reservoirs Journal, BDS Yearbook and featured on the BDS website. There are also cash prizes to be won, with a 1st prize of £200, 2nd prize of £100 and 3rd prize of £50.

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Registration for the British Dam Society conference has now closed. 280 delegates and 12 exhibitors have registered for the event at the University of Nottingham between 14th and 17th September 2022. If you have any queries regarding this event please contact BDSconference@britishdams.org. We look forward to seeing you there.

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The Environment Agency has published its Roadmap for the National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) Strategy for England. A copy can be found here.

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The reservoir research and associated guidance documents relating to the Toddbrook Incident Review (Balmforth - Part A) 2019 report will be published on Monday 27 June. This will mean that all Part A recommendations are now complete. 

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The next meeting of the European Club of ICOLD will be from 5th to 8th September 2023 in Interlaken, Switzerland. Full details are available on the event website (https://www.ecsymposium2023.ch/en). The deadline for submission of abstracts to the organising committee is 30th September 2022.  

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The next ICOLD annual meeting will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden between 11th and 15th June 2023. Full details are available on the event website (https://icold-cigb2023.se/). The deadline for submission of abstracts to the organising committee is 16th October 2023.  

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The 28th Annual Meeting of the European Working Group on Internal Erosion (EWG‐IE) will be held at the University of Sheffield from 18th to 21st July 2022. Following the EWG-IE-27 in Vancouver in June 2019, the Sheffield meeting will provide a forum for sharing novel ideas and recent advances on topics related to internal erosion through water-retaining structures, such as embankment dams, levees and dikes, and in their foundations. Researchers, scientists and engineers, from the private and public sector, in Europe and elsewhere, are welcome. 

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