Latest News

Defra consultation on reservoir emergency onsite plans

Defra has launched the consultation on the industry requirements for reservoir onsite plans. Please read the full news item for more information.

ICE Green Paper consultation on Covid-19 and infrastructure

The ICE are seeking responses to the Covid-19 and the new normal for infrastructure systems Green Paper consultation. The paper discusses the early lessons that the infrastructure sector should take away from the outbreak of Covid-19 in the UK and poses a number of questions to gauge what future infrastructure provision should look like. This consultation runs until 14 June 2020. Responses can be made by emailing policy@ice.org.uk.

Toddbrook Seminar, 6 July

Our next event will be the on-line seminar covering the incident at Toddbrook Reservoir and the subsequent investigations. To book and view this event, go the ICE website. If you previously booked a place in March prior to the postponement you may have been contacted already by the ICE and should not need to re-book. The event is free. Further details can be found on our website here. Note that a selection of presentations will be available to view on the ICE website ahead of the seminar from 29 June.

The terms of reference for Part B of the Toddbrook investigation can be viewed here.

ICOLD 2021

Papers for the Symposium in Marseille next year are now asked to submit their abstract by 15 June (extended deadline) to claire.bellone@mcocongres.com. The full papers are required by 15 September.

Papers for the ICOLD 2021 Congress on any of the four questions must be sent to ICOLD from the national committees by 5 October 2020 so completed papers will be needed by the BDS by mid-September. If you intend to prepare a paper as the lead author could you please send an abstract to Andrew Thompson at hontechsec@britishdams.org by the end of June. Some restrictions on national committees apply. The four questions are:

Concrete dam design innovation and performance
Incidents and accidents concerning dams
Surveillance, instrumentation, monitoring and data acquisition
Dams and climate change

The Initial Bulletin for the event is now available for further information.

Online Event: Early Behaviour of Concretes in Large Dams

The BDS International Lecture by Dr Quentin Shaw on ‘Early Behaviour of Concretes in Large Dams’ will be streamed on-line on Monday 18 May at 6pm. Refer to the website for full details.

Toddbrook Incident Bulletin

Further to the investigation reports on the incident at Toddbrook Reservoir last year, the Environment Agency has published a technical bulletin covering the key messages for the industry. The bulletin can be accessed here.

ICE Reservoirs Committee

Further to the earlier call for new members of the Reservoirs Committee, the deadline for applications has been extended to 12 May.

Regulatory guidance in relation to coronavirus

You may wish to refer to the relevant regulatory guidance and position statement in relation to reservoir safety enforcement and COVID-19. The Environment Agency site is here; an information notice from NRW has also been circulated and is available here; and SEPA has also issued guidance and a regulatory position statement.

Defra research on small reservoir risk published

Defra has released the report on the three-year research project completed by Mott MacDonald on reservoir risk. The report reviews the risk designation process for statutory reservoirs, evaluates the number of small raised reservoirs in England and the risk that they pose. The work will inform a review of present legislation.

The report can be accessed here.

ICOLD event changes

The ICOLD 2020 conference in New Delhi has been further postponed and is currently scheduled to take place on 28 November to 3 December. Details are available here.

The ICOLD Congress and Symposium in Marseilles, France is scheduled for June 2021. The deadline for abstracts for the Congress will be announced later in the year. The abstracts deadline for the Symposium has been extended to 15 May.

The European Working Group on Internal Erosion meeting in Sheffield has been postponed to July 2021.

The planned ICOLD 2022 and ICOLD 2023 Annual Meetings have been swapped: ICOLD 2022 will now take place in Gothenburg, Sweden and ICOLD 2023 will take place in Shiraz, Iran.

BDS conference and other 2020 events

It is likely that mass gatherings for conferences and evening meetings will not be permitted for some time to come. This has inevitably impacted our event planning, most notably the BDS Conference. In addition to the high risk of government restrictions affecting our ability to host this conference, we are mindful of the economic conditions arising from the present crisis that will prevent many members gaining financial support to attend the event. We presently have no plans to open registration for the conference. We are working with the University of Nottingham and we will confirm the date of the next conference as soon as we can.

We plan to host the International Lecture by Quentin Shaw in May or June by video conference. Full details will be provided in the coming weeks.

The Toddbrook Seminar is scheduled for 6 July. This will be presented only by video link and further details will be provided in due course.

We are planning a one-day virtual seminar, the BDS seminar, on 18 September, to deliver presentations on a wide range of subjects. The Bateman Prize winner will be announced during the seminar. This event, and the Toddbrook Seminar, will be recorded so that you can either attend the event on the day or view it later through use of the recordings. For a limited time after these events, we will welcome written questions on the presentations from members. All questions and responses will subsequently be added to the event link.

The AGM and Binnie Lecture will be held on 5 October. This is also presently planned as an on-line only event.

ICOLD 2021 - Marseilles, France

We wish to remind you that abstracts for the 27^th ICOLD Congress and 89^th Annual Meeting to be held on 4-11 June 2021 in Marseille must be submitted to ICOLSD by 30 April. All details can be found at cigb-icold2021.fr/en/#.

If you have already submitted an abstract or plan to do so could you please inform our Technical Secretary, Andrew Thompson (hontechsec@britishdams.org) with the details of the paper.

Toddbrook investigation reports

The Government independent review report on the Toddbrook investigation was released on 16 March and can be found here.

Access to a video on the report findings by CRT Chief Executive Richard Parry and the CRT investigation report can be found here.

We strongly encourage members to take time to carefully study and learn from the findings.

Calendar changes for events

The current global health crisis has had an inevitable impact on the events that we had hoped to bring you this year. As the situation with coronavirus and any government restrictions over the coming months is very hard to predict, the forward planning for our events is also in a state of flux. Dates for future events will be determined when circumstances allow.

Reservoir Committee – new membership

The following notice has been prepared by the ICE Reservoirs Committee:

“Applications are requested for forthcoming vacancies on the Reservoirs Committee. From the October 2020 meeting, the Committee will be appointing 1 Supervising Engineer and 3 All Reservoirs Panel Engineers to the Committee.

The appointees will serve a term of three years, or shorter if determined by the Committee. Applications shall be submitted to the secretary of the Committee at Institution of Civil Engineers (at reservoirs@ice.org.uk), by 1 May 2020. Applicants must include a brief statement (200 words) on their suitability for appointment. All applicants shall have their employer’s approval to serve on the Committee, if appointed

BDS Toddbrook Reservoir Seminar and International Speaker events postponed

We deeply regret that, principally due to concerns regarding the coronavirus, we are unable to schedule the seminar on the Toddbrook Reservoir incident on 16 March. The new date proposed for the event is Monday 6th July at the ICE, London. The postponement will allow the membership to become more aware of the incident details ahead of the seminar. Firstly, we plan to host a technical site meeting at Toddbrook Reservoir site on 21 April, assuming that no health restrictions apply to such an event with small groups at the time. Details will be provided shortly. Secondly, we understand that the Government Independent Review report (which was originally due to be released at the end of 2019) will be released in the coming days. The CRT investigation report is likely to be released at the same time. Our members will now have good time to read these reports well before the seminar.

Impact of Coronavirus on ICOLD and BDS events

ICOLD has announced that the 2020 annual meeting scheduled to be held in New Delhi, India on 4-10 April will now be held on 26 September – 1 October on account of the present global health concerns. You can read the announcement on the ICOLD site: www.icold2020.org. If you are aware on any persons planning to travel to the event who are not members of the BDS please forward this message accordingly.

The BDS seminar on the Toddbrook Reservoir incident and response at the ICE in London on 16 March is currently still scheduled. If you have booked a place to attend but subsequently decide to view the event remotely please let the ICE know so that catering requirements can be adjusted accordingly.

ICOLD Update

ICOLD has been working on an international declaration on the safety of dams and this has now been published and uploaded to our website.

ICOLD are seeking comments on the paper “Dam failures - statistical analysis” by 15 March. The paper can be found on the ICOLD website (Circular Letter 1964).

The European Working Group on Internal Erosion will host a meeting in Sheffield on 7-10 July. Abstracts are requested before 15 March. Details can be found here.

Send us your videos!

We recently received a video produced by Storm Geomatics to promote the British reservoir industry and their contribution to it. You can view the video here. We will be happy to receive similar videos from other companies with the aim of producing a catalogue of interesting videos on dam engineering.

2018 PIR annual report

The 2018 post-incident reporting annual report for England has been published by the Environment Agency and is available here.

Toddbrook Reservoir Incident Seminar

Members can now register a place at the upcoming Toddbrook Reservoir Incident day seminar, which will take place on 16th March 2020 at One Great George Street, London. Registration is free but required for attendance. The programme for the day can be found here.

To register, users should go to www.ice.org.uk/events/private-events/the-toddbrook-reservoir-incident-london.

New CIRIA and Environment Agency Guides

A number of new guidance documents are available which may be of interest to members:

CIRIA C786F Culvert, screen and outfall manual, December 2019, available by free download from CIRIA;
Environment Agency SC110005/S Blockage management guide, November 2019, available here.

In addition, publication of CIRIA R1071: Pipework, Valves and Associated Equipment in Dams. A guide to operation, maintenance, condition assessment and rehabilitation (the subject of this month’s evening meeting) is due this Spring.

BDS Undergraduate Research Bursary

This year we have relaunched this bursary scheme with a new format. The BDS is inviting academic staff to submit research proposals in topics related to dams and reservoirs engineering. Proposals should include the name of the student selected by the supervisor to carry out the study during the summer of 2020 - contact details are within the news item page. The deadline is Feb 28 2020.

BDS Dissertation Prize

This prize is awarded based on research dissertations submitted as part of a BEng, MEng, or MSc degree. Three prizes will be awarded (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd). The original deadline for submission is Jan 20 2020 and the university should submit on behalf of the students. We are extending the deadline to Feb 28 2020.

ICOLD Update

Bulletins 150 (Cutoffs for Dams) and 160 (Dam decommissioning guidelines) are available to view on the ICOLD website.

Comments are invited on the draft bulletin Flood evaluation, hazard determination and risk management.

This year’s annual meeting of ICOLD is in New Delhi, India in the week commencing 6 April.

Planning is already well underway for the 2021 ICOLD Congress in Marseilles, France which will be held on 5-11 June 2021.

21st BDS Conference

The 21st BDS Conference will be held at the University of Nottingham between 16th and 19th September 2020.

The main theme of the conference will be; Sustainability within the context of UK dam development, management and operation.

Synopses, maximum 250 words, should be submitted by 30th November 2019 to the BDS Honorary Technical Secretary.

BDS Supervising Engineer Mentoring Scheme 2019/2020

The steady decline in reservoir panel engineers is a real threat to the dam industry. Encouraging and supporting the next generation of dam engineers is key to overcoming this threat. With this in mind, the British Dam Society Supervising Engineer Mentoring Scheme has been established.

10th International Conference on Scour and Erosion (ICSE 10) - Call for Abstracts

The conference theme is: understanding of processes and design for protection/mitigation from scour and erosion through integration of hydraulics and geotechnics.

Prospective authors are invited to submit abstracts for papers up to 300 words, which should include the title of the article, name(s) and affiliation(s) of the author(s), postal and electronic addresses, and at least three keywords.

To submit your abstract, please fill out the submission form and upload your abstract on the webpage available here.

Abstract Submission Due: August 31, 2019

Notification of Acceptance: September 15, 2019

Manuscripts Due: December 15, 2019

Final Publication-Ready Manuscripts Due: April 30, 2020.

BDS Photography Competition 2019

Submit your photographs without delay to be in with a chance of winning the 1st prize of £200; 2nd Prize of £100 or 3rd Prize of £50 and having your photographs published in Dams & Reservoirs and/or used on the BDS website.

Photographs to be submitted via the Member's Area of the BDS website (https://britishdams.org/members-area/bds-members-area/competitions)

The BDS photography competition will now be subjected to automatic picture/ file size validation checks as part of the submission process. The files will be checked to ensure the picture width is greater than 3000pixels and the file size is no larger than 6MB - any photographs not meeting these requirements will be rejected.

Closing date for entries is 31st October 2019 and the winners will be announced at the BDS Prize Meeting on 18th November 2019

Full details can be found on the competition poster available here.

Contact details for Media Enquiries

The contact details for any media enquiries to the BDS is media@britishdams.org

This email is monitored and a response to your enquiry will be made as soon as possible by one of our team.

Toddbrook Reservoir Incident

I am sure that all of our members are concerned with the recent and on-going events at Toddbrook Reservoir. At the present time the dam has yet to be declared safe for the return of the residents.

The BDS and ICE has been giving interviews to the media in relation to the on-going incident. I am sure you can imagine and appreciate that the number of requests for interviews has far exceeded our capacity to respond.

The dam is a 24m high Pennine embankment dam dating from 1831. Works were carried out in the 1970’s to provide an auxiliary spillway on the embankment. We have no doubt that a formal investigation of the incident will be carried out on behalf of the Environment Agency in due course.

The BDS will do all that we can to help share the lessons to be learned from this incident and to encourage debate in due course.

In the meantime our thoughts are with the residents of Whaley Bridge.

Alan Warren

BDS Chair

Notice of Elections of New Members to the ICE Reservoirs Committee

Applications are requested for forthcoming vacancies on the Reservoirs Committee. From the October 2019 meeting the Committee will be appointing 1 Supervising Engineer and 2 All Reservoirs Panel Engineers to the Committee.

BDS Photography Competition – Requirements Update.

The 2019 BDS photography competition will now be subjected to automatic picture/ file size validation checks as part of the submission process. The files will be checked to ensure the picture width is greater than 3000pixels and the file size is no larger than 6MB.

We are advertising this procedure now so that you have a chance to check and adjust your camera settings, thus ensuring any photographs you take in the intervening period will be compliant for submission in the 2019 photography competition. Happy snapping!!

EA Reservoir Safety Biennial Report: January 2017 to December 2018

The EA have published their Biennial reservoir safety report for the period 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2018 which sets out actions the Environment Agency has taken in its role as the reservoir regulator.

The report is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reservoir-safety-biennial-report

Incident Reporting At Scottish Reservoirs

Although the reporting of incidents at reservoirs is still undertaken on a voluntary basis in Scotland, as the relevant section of the Reservoirs (Scotland) Act is yet to be commenced, it was recognised that it would be good practice to encourage reservoir managers to report any incidents occurring at their reservoir.

SEPA Guidance Documents For Completion Of Engineer Reports And Written Statements.

SEPA, in consultation with members of the Scottish reservoirs industry, have recently produced two guidance documents regarding the completion of Schedule 12 - Inspection Reports and Schedule 15 – Supervising Engineer Written Statements.

2018 BDS Conference Proceedings – Discussions Notes

The 2018 BDS conference proceedings webpage has been updated to include the discussion notes for the six technical presentation sessions.

BDS Mentoring Scheme

This BDS initiative is aimed at helping BDS Members of any age or discipline to achieve their goals within the dams and reservoirs profession.

ICOLD Workshop on Numerical Analysis of Dams

The ICOLD Technical Committee on “Computational Aspects of Analysis and Design of Dams” announces the organisation of the 15th Benchmark Workshop on Numerical Analysis of Dams that will be held in Milan on 9 to 11 September 2019.

ICOLD 2019 - 11th ICOLD European Club Symposium

Abstracts for the Symposium can be submitted online until 15 January 2019. Additionally, a two-day International Seminar on ‘Flood Management, spillway design and public safety’ will be held before the Symposium. Details on the program, abstract submission and International Seminar are given on the website.

EA Interpretation On Timing Of Inspections Under The Reservoirs Act 1975 (England)

The Environment Agency, as enforcement authority for England, has produced their interpretation of the required timing of service reservoir inspections and the 1st inspection after a section 8 inspection under the Reservoirs Act 1975 in England.

The Reservoir Safety Advisory Group (RSAG) Has A New Name

The Reservoir Safety Advisory Group (RSAG) has a new name to better describe what the Group do – they are now called the Research Advisory Group for Reservoir Safety (RAGRS).

Hydropower-Europe Project

ICOLD was successful in winning funds for this project with the aims to: (1) engage all relevant stakeholders; (2) address the challenges and prioritize needs (3) write and disseminate the research agenda and the technology road map up to 2050.

Notice of Elections of New Members to the ICE Reservoirs Committee

Applications are requested for a forthcoming vacancy on the Reservoirs Committee. From the October 2018 meeting the Committee will be appointing three Supervising Engineers to the Committee.

New Environmental Permitting Guidance for Reservoir Operators Produced by the Environment Agency

The Environment Agency, which regulates discharges from reservoir scour valves in England, has produced new environmental permitting guidance for reservoir operators.

Reservoirs (Scotland) Act 2011 - New Guidance on Discontinuance and Abandonment

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), who regulate reservoirs in Scotland under the Reservoirs (Scotland) Act 2011, has produced some new guidance on Discontinuance and Abandonment.

ICOLD European Club Dam Legislation report

The Working Group on Dam Legislation has re-issued this report following an update by the Netherlands.

A Guide to Breach Prediction

Under the supervision of breach experts, Dr Mark Morris and Dr Mohamed Hassan, at HR Wallingford, a summer student from Surrey University undertook an independent review of the current state-of-breach models available across the world, and produced a ‘Dummies Guide’ type report on the different techniques that can be used to model a breach

How Does the Reservoirs Committee Operate?

The panel system of reservoir engineers was set up in its current form by the Reservoirs Act 1975. That Act required the Secretary of State to set up panels of appropriately qualified civil engineers to inspect and supervise reservoirs, appointed after consultation with the President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, or a committee set up for that purpose

Latest News

Files:

Files:

Files: