IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON SUBMITTING A PAPER TO ICOLD 2018, IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU READ THIS NEWS ITEM:

A recent ICOLD Circular Letter has provided some guidance for National Committees including new rules for paper submissions to the combined 26th Congress & 86th ICOLD Annual Meeting in Vienna in July 2018.  These include:

• The UK can submit a maximum of 6 papers per question (there are 4 questions – see below) and a total of 18 papers across all of the 4 questions.
• Each National Committee has an allowance to publish 15 pages per question (not per paper) free of charge.
• Additional pages per question will include a charge of Euros 38 per page.
• Each paper should be a maximum of 20 pages.

In addition:

• Subject to the caveat below, BDS will pay for any pages in excess of the 15 page question quota, regardless of how many UK papers are submitted for a question - although the UK is limited to a maximum of six papers per question, and no more than 18 in total over the four questions.
• However, if any paper exceeds 15 pages the authors of that paper will be expected to pay for the excess pages at the rate of €38 per additional page (so a maximum of €190)

To ensure that the BDS does not incur excessive charges, please would all authors adhere to the following procedure:

Abstracts & papers need to be submitted to the BDS Technical Secretary Andrew Pepper (email: HonTechSec@britishdams.org) for review according to the timeline below.  This is based on the requirement for final papers to be submitted to ICOLD by 8th November 2017:

• 16th June 2017 – Abstracts are to be submitted to the BDS Technical Secretary
• 7th July 2017 – Authors are notified of acceptance by BDS
• 22nd September 2017 – Final papers are submitted to BDS Technical Secretary
• 27th October 2017 – Authors are notified of acceptance by BDS

Guidelines for the preparation of papers can be supplied by the BDS Technical Secretary upon request.

Note that acceptance of a paper by BDS does not mean it will be automatically accepted by the Congress organisers.

Questions voted for Vienna 2018 congress are:

100 - RESERVOIR SEDIMENTATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

1. Best practice of storage design, including sediment release structures, reservoir operation and sedimentation management techniques including dredging, sediment removal and debris removal. 
2. Sediment replenishment techniques downstream of dams for river regime and morphology restoration.
3. Experiences with turbidity current discharge by bottom outlets and the performance of sediment by-pass tunnels.
4. Effect of climate change on reservoir sedimentation and consequences on sustainable storage.

101 - SAFETY AND RISK ANALYSIS

1. Seismic Risk: Lessons from past earthquakes. Cost efficiency of relevant design improvements for dams.
2. Risk from floods on embankment dams, including climate change. (Data of accidents, risk analysis, efficiency and cost of solutions.)
3. Various risks for concrete and masonry dams, including climate change. (Data of accidents, risk analysis, specific remedies.)
4. Non-structural drivers that increase or reduce risk. (Management, alert systems, public safety, data on accidents.)

102 - GEOLOGY AND DAMS

1. Geology of foundation (investigation, interpretation and characterization) in relation to dam type selection and dam design. 
2. Foundation treatment: -Sealing the foundation (e.g. grouting, jet-grouting, cut-off walls, deep cut-off, etc.) -Strengthening the foundation (e.g. consolidation grouting, anchoring, concreted galleries, etc.)
3. Instrumentation and monitoring, behaviour of foundations, including long-term performance.
4. Problems and solutions related to soft rocks foundation and foundation on deep overburden. Reservoirs and landslides.

103 - SMALL DAMS AND LEVEES

1. Failure modes of levees: lessons learned, risk analysis, safety levels. 
2. Design, construction and reinforcement of levees, problems with the original design.
3. Governance, inspection and monitoring of levees. 
4. Specific problems experienced and solutions for operating, maintaining and rehabilitation of thousands of “Large Dams” lower than 15m.
5. Specific problems experienced and solutions for operating, maintaining and rehabilitation of “Small Dams” lower than 15m and storing less than 1 million m³.