The British Dam Society

BDS Announcements

AGM & Evening Meeting

The next AGM and Evening Meeting will be held on 28th April in person at One Great George Street. It will also be streamed online, as well as the regional hubs. More information on the event can be found here.  

Next Supervising Engineers Forum – Call for Presentations

The next Supervising Engineers Forum will be held at the National Conference Centre in Birmingham on Thursday 18th September 2025. We are now calling for presentations, with a closing date for submissions of Friday 16th May 2025. Additional information including the topics to be covered can be found here. 

Site Visits

The site visit to observe the works being undertaken at Toddbrook Reservoir took place on the 26th March 2025. Thanks to all those that attended. Hopefully you found it both informative and interesting.  

BDS Young Professionals

CPD Event 

The dates of up-and-coming YP CPD events can now be found on the BDS website here. The next event shall be on the 24th April 2025. The topic will be ‘Hydraulics 101’.

ICE Event

Complex reservoir remediation projects in North Wales: contractor’s perspective

On the 17th April a webinar organised by the ICE will be given on the complex construction challenges faced by Contractors. This presentation will cover four different reservoir projects undertaken in Wales. More information on the event can be found here.  

ICOLD

28th ICOLD Congress and 93rd Annual Meeting - Chengdu, China, 15th to 23rd May 2025 

The 28th ICOLD Congress and 93rd is fast approaching. 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. For all those attending could they let the BDS know, that way we can reach out and make sure everyone is invited to any BDS gatherings whilst we are there. We will also share details of the EurCOLD social evening being sponsored by CarpiTech so you can register for the event.

BDS Young Professional Bursaries for this Years ICOLD Congress and Meeting

This year the BDS is delighted to be able to once again offer five bursaries of £1,000 each. We received an unprecedented number of applications from members keen to take advantage of the bursary. The successful applicants have now been notified and we look forward to seeing them in Chengdu in May.

Updates

The bulletins approved in New Delhi (Bulletin 199 to Bulletin 206) have been put in ‘preprint’ version on the website (in the Publication section).

To download these bulletins, please go to the publication page of the ICOLD website here https://www.icold-cigb.org/GB/publications/bulletins.asp

ICOLD Newsletter

Please follow this link to the latest ICOLD newsletter, this document contains lots of useful information including an introduction to the ICOLD Congress in China. 

Dams and Reservoirs Day- EurCOLD (ICOLD European club)

The second Dams and Reservoirs Day is to be held on 28th May 2025. The initiative was launched by the Italian Committee on Large Dams (ITCOLD) in 2023 to advocate for, recognize contributions to, and promote knowledge about the role of dams, reservoirs, tailings dams, and levees in economic, social, and environmental contexts. The main objectives of Dams and Reservoirs Day include: 

• Raising public awareness about dams, reservoirs, tailings dams, and levees. • Engaging local communities and highlighting their value in sustainable social development and prosperity. • Educating children, young people, and society on their contributions. • Providing high school students and young professionals with information on job opportunities in the sector. • Promoting interactions between professionals and administrative bodies involved in the field. 

This year the title of the day will be “ Water and Energy Security for Europe”.

Last year, the BDS promoted a campaign on LinkedIn over a period of a week, where we focussed who the BDS were, UK Reservoir Legislation, historical dam incidents and a selection of current construction projects.This year, the BDS would like to participate once again in the day, so if you have any ideas such as site visits/special lectures etc, then please contact bds@ice.org.uk with your ideas of how you can help us participate in this day. 

31st European Working Group on Internal Erosion and 6th on Overtopping and Erosion

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.  More information can be found here.

Improving Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) and Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) estimation for reservoir safety

The Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Programme published a report for FRS19222 Improving Probable Maximum Precipitation and Probable Maximum Flood for Reservoir Safety on GOV.UK here.

The research reviewed the methods used to estimate probable maximum rainfall and flows for reservoir safety. The report describes the first phase of a project that aims to assess the suitability of methods for estimating PMP and PMF.  Accompanying the report, is a spreadsheet tool that applies the current PMP and PMF methods, including calculating snowmelt. 

Skelmorlie centenary commemorations – BDS supports a memorial

18th April is the centenary of the flooding of Skemorlie in Scotland due to the failure of a reservoir. It resulted in the deaths of five people within the village. The BDS has been supporting the local committee with preparations for the commemorations. We have sponsored a memorial to the event which will be displayed in the community. We would like to offer our thanks to Martin Deane of Mott MacDonald who presented to the community in March on reservoir disasters, legislation, and current work on reservoirs. We would also like to thank Stephen Lockett of Mott MacDonald for offering to represent the BDS at the event on 18th April.

Dolgarrog centenary commemorations – a call for help

This November marks the centenary of the flooding of Dolgarrog in North Wales caused by the failure of two reservoir dams. Sixteen people died that night: six children and ten adults. This event was a significant prompt for the introduction of legislation to demand minimum standards needed to protect people from dam failure. This is a call for BDS members to help support a variety of planned commemoration events. If you would like to help, please get in touch with bds@ice.org.uk.