Appropriate small dam management for minimizing catchment‐wide safety threats: International benchmarked guidelines and demonstrative cases studies

Abstract

Small dam safety is generally being ignored. The potential for dam failure resulting in catastrophic consequences for downstream communities, property, and the environment, warrants exploration of the threats and policy issues associated with the management of small/farm dams. The paper achieves this through a comparative analysis of differing levels of dam safety assurance policy: absent, driven, strong, and model. A strategic review is undertaken to establish international dam safety policy benchmarks and to identify a best practice model. A cost‐effective engineering/accounting tool is presented to assist the policy selection process and complement the best practice model. The paper then demonstrates the significance of the small‐dam safety problem with a case study of four Australian States,policy‐absent South Australia, policy‐driven Victoria, policy‐strong New South Wales, and policy‐modelTasmania. Surveys of farmer behavior practices provide empirical evidence of the importance of policy and its proper implementation. Both individual and cumulative farm dam failure threats are addressed and, with supporting empirical evidence, the need for “appropriate” supervision of small dams is demonstrated. The paper adds to the existing international dam policy literature by identifying acceptable minimum level practice in private/farm dam safety assurance policy as well as updated international best practice policy guidelines while providing case study demonstration of how to apply the guidelines and empirical reinforcement of the need for “appropriate” policy. The policy guidelines, cost‐effective technology, and comparative lessons presented can assist any jurisdiction to determine and implement appropriate dam safety policy.