HKIE Seminar on Dam Safety Review – an Important Element in a Dam Safety Management System

HKIE Seminar on
Dam Safety Review – an Important Element in a Dam Safety Management System
Jointly organized by the CV, GE, and supported by CIWEM(HK) and AGS(HK)

Date : 31 May 2025 (Saturday)
Time : 9:30am – 11:30am (Hong Kong Time)
Venue : HKIE EngHub at the NEO 3/F, Kowloon Bay

Programme Highlights
Most countries have well-established dam safety legislation which outlines the legal requirements for dam owners to ensure the safe operation and maintenance of their dams, including provisions for design standards or guidelines, inspection procedures, emergency response plans, and reporting obligations to regulatory authorities, with the primary goal of minimizing risks associated with dam failure and protecting public safety and the environment.

Most dam safety legislations require that a dam safety management system (DSMS) must be designed to be used by the owner of the dam as the primary means of ensuring, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of persons and property is not put at risk from the dam.

The components of a DSMS are usually defined in the legislations, which may require the DSMS to set out:
(a) the procedures for managing risks,
(b) the procedures for reporting incidents,
(c) the procedures for conducting a safety review,
(d) the procedures for notifying changes to the dam,
(f) dam safety emergency planning,
(g) surveillance and monitoring of dam performance,
(h) operation and maintenance procedures,
(i) the resources that will be applied for the effective implementation and use of the DSMS,
(j) education and training of dam safety personnel,etc.

The proposed seminar will use interesting case studies to explain the basic concepts of a DSMS and will focus on the safety review of a dam using the traditional standards-based approach and the use of a risk-based approach. The seminar will be presented by Dr. Chi Fai Wan who has more than thirty years of experience in dams engineering and have participated in dam safety projects in Hong Kong SAR, China, Australia, and the USA.

The speaker will share past experience of his daily work on DSMS in particular those dam safety review to safeguarding water safety amid escalating climate and urban pressures in the talk.

Language
The talk will be delivered in English

About the Speaker
Ir Dr. Chi Fai Wan
PhD, FHKIE, FICE, FIEAust, RPE(GE)
Dr Wan has 40 years of post-graduate experience, in water and dams projects in Hong Kong SAR, China, Australia, and the USA. He is a senior member of HKIE, ICE, Engineers Australia and is a registered professional engineer in the field of Civil and Geotechnical Engineering.
He has specialist skills in internal erosion of embankment dams, having researched the mechanisms of internal erosion and piping at the University of New South Wales. He has published prolifically during his career, having published more than thirty technical papers and reports on soil erosion testing, dam design, risk assessment, probabilistic design and analysis, numerical modelling. He was a guest lecturer in Dams Engineering Courses at the Sydney University in 2009, and at the University of New South Wales in 2009, 2018 and 2019.
Dr Wan recent major projects include serving as Technical Reviewer for the Safety Upgrade Design of 14,100 Megalitres White Swan Dam (zone embankment) in Ballarat, Victoria; and Detailed Design of the proposed 900 Megalitres Woodglen No. 3 Basin in East Gippsland, Victoria, and as Technical Lead in numerous comprehensive dam safety reviews employing both traditional standards-based and quantitative risk-based methodologies, including the Comprehensive Risk Assessment of Prospect Dam (zoned embankment) and Warragamba Dam (concrete gravity dam) in Sydney.
Currently Dr. Wan is representing the Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD) in the International Commission of Large Dams (ICOLD) as Dams Risk Specialist.

Registration and Enquiry
Registration will be sent to https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJuPtEVTa4E4VCq_1jfIC51CyXnWvcUvPHkPy5ClU6beoC6g/viewform
on or before 26 May 2025. Successful applicants will be notified by email. Seats will be allocated to first-come-first served with priority be given to the members of the CV and GE Divisions. On-line accounts will be limited to 200.

For enquiry, please contact Ir Victor KY LO at email irvictorkylo@gmail.com.