Safeguarding and enhancing the resilience of small and medium-sized reservoir dams under floods exceeding design standards
JING Laihong
LI Hong'en
Abstract：China currently has about 95,000 reservoirs,with small and medium-sized ones accounting for over 99%.More than 80%of these reservoirs were constructed before 1980,90.2%are earth-rock dams,and 92%have a dam height of less than 30 meters.These reservoirs commonly face challenges such as inherent construction deficiencies,low flood design standards,and inadequate flood discharge facilities.In recent years,with the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization and the increasing frequency of extreme rainfall events,the assumption of hydrological sequence consistency has been frequently violated.Under the influence of changing environmental conditions and intensified human activities,the risk of overtopping due to floods exceeding design standards has sharply increased for small and medium-sized reservoirs.Based on a review of achievements in dam safety management in China,this paper identifies and analyzes the key scientific and technical challenges in ensuring dam safety and enhancing resilience under floods exceeding design standards.These include the need to clarify the definition of floods exceeding design standards,improve the calculation of design floods and the methods for determining flood standards under changing conditions,and develop new dam surface protection structures and technologies to enhance flood discharge capacity.Corresponding countermeasures are proposed in four aspects:building a sound theoretical framework,optimizing engineering protection,developing emergency response equipment,and improving the technical standards system.
Keywords：small and medium-sized reservoirsearth-rock damsfloods exceeding design standardssafety safeguardingresilience enhancement
Publication Date：2025-08-12
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-22(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 46-51 )