Welcome to the third edition of Dams and Reservoirs of 2010. Fresh in many people's memories will be the 16th biennial BDS conference held at the University of Strathclyde in June. Even in these difficult economic times there was a large attendance and the conference proved a great success. Kenny Dempster and his colleagues at SSE who arranged this conference deserve a well-earned rest. Hopefully, not too many grey hairs were added during the organisation of it. The next conference, in 2012, will be in Leeds.
This edition contains write-ups of the conference, pre-conference tour and conference visits, as a reminder to those who attended, and as a taster of what was missed for those unable to attend. It is a great pleasure to have an article from the ICE president, Paul Jowitt, in this edition. Paul was the conference's after dinner speaker. I hope to have in the next edition a paper from John Cowie (sailing and other commitments permitting) reprising the Binnie lecture where John talked on some of the great dam engineers of the 20th century who designed and constructed the major hydro schemes in Scotland.
For those who were unable to attend, a print copy of the conference proceedings is now available from Thomas Telford. Synopses of papers may also be reviewed on the BDS website.
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Ted Hawes who passed away in April. An obituary will be published in the next edition of Dams and Reservoirs.
BDS website
The BDS website ‘www.britishdams.org’ is having a facelift and it is intended to launch a new website soon. The revised website will have a new look and a fresh structure making it easier to find and access information. One aim is to have a members' area where BDS members will be able to access information and publications – such as recent editions of Dams and Reservoirs. The existing website remains very much alive and well in the meantime. Usage has grown steadily since its original launch in 2001 with now around 12 500 to 15 000 hits per month, as shown in Figure 1.
Please note that you can register on the website for e-mail updates and alerts of news and meetings.
Events
Although 2011 still seems a long way away, a date for your diary is 6 April 2011 for the BDS Supervising Engineers Forum. It will be held at the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham, a new venue for the event. The forum will cover current topics of interest to supervising engineers. A programme is currently being put together. If you have ideas for topics or have an interest in speaking on a topic please e-mail Julian Welbank at: julian.welbank@wessexwater.co.uk.
The Sixth International Conference on Dam Engineering will be held in Lisbon, Portugal between 15–17 February 2011. See http://dam11.lnec.pt for details.
The 79th ICOLD annual meeting will be held from 29 May to 3 June 2011 in Lucerne, Switzerland. As part of that meeting, on the 1 June an international symposium will be held on Dams and Reservoirs under Changing Challenges. See http://www.icold2011.ch/ for details.
Looking even further ahead, if anybody fancies a trip to Brazil, the Brazilian Committee on Dams together with the Chinese Committee on Large Dams is holding the II International Symposium on Rockfill Dams, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 27–28 October 27 2011.
Competitions
The last remaining competition of 2010 still open for entry is the BDS student competition. This has a closing date of 30 November. See the BDS website: www.britishdams.org for details of how to enter.
ICE and the learned societies
You may have seen in editions of NCE recently concerns over changes that the ICE were proposing for charging learned societies, of which BDS is one, for use of facilities at One Great George Street. The ICE has now backed down from its original planned charge increases and a compromise has been reached between the ICE and the learned societies for future charging arrangements. A positive outcome of the issue has been a commitment to better communication between the ICE and its learned societies.
Defra and Environment Agency reservoir safety R&D
Please can I remind you of some of the recent R&D work that is being carried out under the joint Defra/Environment Agency R&D programme. Ongoing and recently completed work includes
research into stepped masonry spillway chutes at dams
lessons from historical dam incidents
scoping study to review the interim guidance on quantitative risk assessment
emergency planning for dams and reservoirs
impacts of climate change on reservoirs and dams
scoping the process for determining acceptable levels of risk in reservoir design
scoping study – review of the guide to internal erosion
scoping study – reservoir tunnel safety
guidance for estimating long period rainfall floods.
The joint Defra/Environment Agency Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management research and development (FCERM R&D) programme has been carrying out reservoir safety R&D since April 2008. An R&D strategy for reservoir safety was developed following consultation with the industry and a report published in February 2009. The Strategy includes a list of 49 prioritised research projects for the next 5–15 years.
Information on this work can be found at http://evidence.environment-agency.gov.uk/fcerm and at http://randd.defra.gov.uk/.
The Environment Agency also recognises that there is an opportunity to do more with collaborative funding and are keen to discuss opportunities with the industry.
For more information about the Defra/EA reservoir safety R&D work please contact Geoff Baxter at: geoff.baxter@environment-agency.gov.uk.
Contributions
Now that the BDS conference is out of the way for another 2 years I hope potential authors among you will turn your attention to Dams and Reservoirs again and share your knowledge and experiences by submitting papers, news or other articles. Author guidelines can be found on the journal website at www.thomastelford.com/journals. Please continue to submit articles to me at andrew.kirby@mottmac.com. I am happy to help with any format issues if required. Please remember that this is a journal of a small(ish) society that needs the support of all its members. It would be great to receive papers and articles from a wide cross-section of BDS members on what you are doing in the UK and overseas.
