Water Resources: Reservoir Safety
The Reservoirs Act 1975 provides a safety regime for large raised reservoirs and their dams.
Panel engineers
All such reservoirs coming within the ambit of the Act must be inspected and supervised by appropriate engineers appointed under the Act by the Secretary of State for that purpose. The Department has provided a listing of such engineers, which also contains further information about the reservoir panels, as well as details as to how engineers can apply for appointment. Details are available here.
Research
The parties involved in reservoir safety - reservoir owners, specialist engineers, and local authorities with enforcement duties - all have a need for an authoritative and developing source of information and advice on reservoir safety. The Department (and its predecessors), along with other interested parties, sponsors research to contribute to this process and it is now our practice to make the reports of these research projects available through our website. The reports available are listed below and can be downloaded. As reports of further research are completed, they will be added.
Research reports available
System of incident reporting (PDF) (208 KB) February 2006
Volume 1 of a three volume report by KBR on the design of a system for the reporting and investigation of incidents affecting dams and their related equipment and structures. Volumes 2 and 3 are available in pdf format on request (paul.ditchfield@defra.gsi.gov.uk)
Reservoir Flood Plans - June 2006
Section 12A of the Reservoirs Act 1975, amended by the Water Act 2003, gives the Secretary of State power to direct reservoir undertakers to prepare flood plans for their reservoirs. The exercise of this power will be the subject of a public consultation exercise in due course. In preparation for the formal consultation process we are publishing three documents here on which feedback from interested parties would be welcomed by 29 September 2006. These documents, which have been produced by Jacobs Babtie under contract to the Department, are:
- the draft Guide to Emergency Planning for UK Reservoirs
- a note on the anticipated application of the flood plan direction-making power (PDF) (203 KB)
- a draft Supplement No.1 to the Interim Guide to Quantitative Risk Assessment (PDF) (101 KB)
Feedback should be sent to the Department (paul.ditchfield@defra.gsi.gov.uk) and will be shared by the Department with the Jacobs Babtie team preparing the Guide.
Early detection of internal
erosion - feasibility report (PDF) (776 KB)
This report by KBR proposes an outline strategy to provide a cost-effective
approach to the detection of internal erosion in embankment dams. The
related literature reviews and other non-core material are available from
Defra on request (email paul.ditchfield@defra.gsi.gov.uk).
Technical guidance will be added to this site during 2007.
Interim Guide to Quantitative Risk Assessment for UK reservoirs
The Interim Guide, published by and obtainable from Thomas
Telford in June 2004, is the result of a 3 year research project
undertaken by KBR and sponsored by Defra. The Guide includes an Excel
workbook on a CD and provides the means to estimate the probability of
failure of a dam and the likely loss of life if the dam failed. It also
provides the means to assess whether the risk posed is tolerable using
the ALARP approach. The detailed research report which led to the Guide
is available in sections.
Floods and Reservoir Safety (FEH/FSR)
- Revised Guidance for Panel Engineers
(published June 2004; page
includes earlier and related documents)
Vulnerability of UK dam embankments to increased direct rainfall on their surfaces (PDF) (720 KB) - Report by Babtie Group
Climate change impacts
on the safety of British reservoirs (PDF) NB 2.1 MB
(January 2002) The Department, through its reservoir safety research programme,
commissioned Babtie Group in association with CEH Wallingford to examine
the impact on safety of projected changes in magnitude of extreme events,
and to consider the scale of precipitation and gale events that might
cause risk of exceeding the capacity of existing dams.
Sedimentation in storage
reservoirs (PDF) NB 2.1 MB
(February 2001) Report by Halcrow Water. The report describes research
carried out on aspects of reservoir sedimentation in British reservoirs
with the emphasis on those used for water supply
Further information is available on our Help page about downloading or reading Adobe Acrobat
documents.
Page last modified: 4 June 2007