Published Resources Details
Conference Paper
- Title
- Heritage Dams and Public Safety - Striking a Balance
- In
- Sustaining Heritage: Second International and Thirteenth National Engineering Heritage Conference and NSW Railways Seminar
- Imprint
- Engineers Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, 2005, pp. 29-41
- ISBN/ISSN
- 085825820X
- Url
- https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.067867949126519
- Abstract
As dams age and become structurally deficient, they can pose a threat to public safety and may no longer have any commercial value. Yet often they are considered by the local community as an integral part of their social, cultural, heritage and environmental landscape. This paper focuses on two small dams. Both dams are more than a century old and do not satisfy current dam safety regulatory standards. The risks to the downstream residents were high. and the dam owner was required to remove these risks. The paper explores the challenges involved in the management of heritage dams by revisiting the outcomes of the two dam projects and describing the process used to arrive at the solutions. The availability of funding for surveillance, maintenance and capital works plays a large role in determining the condition and ultimately the conservation of these early New South Wales dams. It is imperative to resolve dam safety issues based on balanced decision making, with decisions taking into account the structural condition and the risks associated with the dam, having due regard for the dam's heritage and environmental value and role to the community.
Related Published resources
isPartOf
- Sustaining Heritage: Second International and Thirteenth National Engineering Heritage Conference and NSW Railways Seminar (Sydney, New South Wales: Engineers Australia, 2005), 268 pp, https://search.informit.org/doi/book/10.3316/informit.085825820X. Details