VODPREG – STATE OF DAMS FOR WATER MANAGEMENT PURPOSE IN SLOVENIA

Abstract

The care for safe use and exploitation of dams and reservoirs in the world has made considerable progress in recent decades. Due to intensive use of space and the increasing need of building dams closer to populated areas, more and more attention is given to the integration of such facilities into space and to the fulfilment of higher demands imposed by standards to ensure safe operation and exploitation of dams. Scarce public awareness of the dangers which could be posed by dams, and the lack of the information necessary for the emergency preparedness to perform evacuation in case of failure of a dam, spurred the Administration for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief at the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia to conduct a complex review of documentation and state of Slovenian dams and reservoirs for water management purpose. Four partner organizations: the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Hidrotehnik, d.d., IBE,d.d., and the Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute participated in the elaboration of review. As the result of the review, the consortium prepared recommendations for improving the safety of the dams and for raising public awareness. The article presents the findings and recommendations of the task to improve the safety barriers.