The Geoffrey Binnie Lecture 2014: The heritage of dams in Northern Ireland Available to Purchase

The Geoffrey Binnie Lecture is the British Dam Society's keynote lecture, presented biannually at the BDS conference. The 2014 lecture was presented prior to the conference dinner on Thursday 4 September in Belfast. The paper reviews the role played by impoundments in Northern Ireland from early times and considers a selection of the approximately 150 reservoirs, all of which will soon become subject to specific safety legislation. It refers to some of the challenges faced by early designers and builders, and to some improvements that have been necessary in the interest of safety. These include works to various publicly owned reservoirs between 1972 and 1990 in anticipation of the likely extension of legislation to Northern Ireland, similar to that which applies to the rest of the UK. In particular, it recognises the vision and achievement of the designers, builders and custodians whose dams form their legacy to the long-term benefit of society.