Earthquake Engineering for Dams and Reservoirs is an invaluable source for any engineer, or designer, tasked with building, retrofitting or maintaining dams in all seismically active regions to make decisions on the type of dam structure required for new projects and understand the issues that face existing dams and how to mitigate them.

The hazard posed by large dams has long been known. Although no concrete dam has failed as a result of earthquake activity, there have been instances of significant damage. Concerns about the seismic safety of concrete dams have been growing recently because the population at risk in locations downstream of major dams continues to expand and because the seismic design concepts in use at the time most existing dams were built were inadequate. In this book, the committee evaluates current knowledge about the earthquake performance of concrete dams, including procedures for investigating the seismic safety of such structures. Earthquake Engineering for Concrete Dams specifically informs researchers about state-of-the-art earthquake analysis of concrete dams and identifies subject areas where additional knowledge is needed.

The Loma Prieta earthquake struck the San Francisco area on October 17, 1989, causing 63 deaths and $10 billion worth of damage. This book reviews existing research on the Loma Prieta quake and draws from it practical lessons that could be applied to other earthquake-prone areas of the country. The volume contains seven keynote papers presented at a symposium on the earthquake and includes an overview written by the committee offering recommendations to improve seismic safety and earthquake awareness in parts of the country susceptible to earthquakes.

Improved Seismic Monitoringâ€"Improved Decision-Making, describes and assesses the varied economic benefits potentially derived from modernizing and expanding seismic monitoring activities in the United States. These benefits include more effective loss avoidance regulations and strategies, improved understanding of earthquake processes, better engineering design, more effective hazard mitigation strategies, and improved emergency response and recovery. The economic principles that must be applied to determine potential benefits are reviewed and the report concludes that although there is insufficient information available at present to fully quantify all the potential benefits, the annual dollar costs for improved seismic monitoring are in the tens of millions and the potential annual dollar benefits are in the hundreds of millions.

Introductory technical guidance for civil engineers, geotechnical engineers and construction managers interested in earthquake safety evaluation of concrete and embankment dams. Here is what is discussed: 1. TYPE AND EXTENT OF ANALYSES 2. CONCRETE DAMS 3. EMBANKMENT DAMS.

Introductory technical guidance for civil engineers, structural engineers and other professional engineers interested if earthquake analysis for dam safety Here is what is discussed: 1. DESIGN AND SAFETY EVALUATION OF EARTHQUAKES, 2. DETERMINING MAXIMUM CREDIBLE EARTHQUAKES, 3. SELECTING MAXIMUM DESIGN EARTHQUAKES OR SAFETY EVALUATION EARTHQUAKES, 4. CHARACTERIZING SITE GROUND MOTIONS, 5. SEISMIC ANALYSES.

From earth tectonics and meteorology to risk, responsibility, and the role of government, this comprehensive and detailed book reviews current practices in designing dams to withstand extreme hydrologic and seismic events. Recommendations for action and for further research to improve dam safety evaluations are presented.

Expansion of water resources is a key factor in the socio-economic development of all countries. Dams play a critical role in water storage, especially for areas with unequal rainfall and limited water availability. While the safety of existing dams, periodic re-evaluations and life extensions are the primary objectives in developed countries, the design and construction of new dams are the main concerns in developing countries. The role of dam engineers has greatly changed over recent decades. Thanks to new technologies, the surveillance, monitoring, design and analysis tasks involved in this process have significantly improved. The current edited book is a collection of dam-related papers. The overall aim of this edited book is to improve modeling, simulation and field measurements for different dam types (i.e. concrete gravity dams, concrete arch dams, and embankments). The articles cover a wide range of topics on the subject of dams, and reflect the scientific efforts and engineering approaches in this challenging and exciting research field.