A filtered database of dam breach characteristics

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Mustapha Yassin
  • Anushka Ahmed
  • Vincent McFarlane
  • Fangzhou Liu

• Three datasets of historical dam failures that are filtered to be able to evaluate empirical equations for peak flow, breach formation time, and average breach width. Various assumptions and estimates have been made to expand the applicability of each dataset. Given the magnitude of uncertainty in the observed values of peak flow, time to failure, and average breach width, these assumptions are not likely to introduce significant error into the analysis of empirical equations for dam breach characteristics. After these assumptions were made, the remaining data were filtered to just include those that were applicable to the evaluation of empirical equations for dam breach characteristics. Then, the data was cross-referenced with other sources for further validation. In cases where there was significant uncertainty about the validity of a record, the record was removed from the database.

  Acknowledgements: The authors appreciate and commend Mayari Bernard-Garcia and Tew-Fik Mahdi for their fastidious work in compiling this data into a comprehensive worldwide database for use in studies such as this one.

• Date created

  2024-01-01

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Dam breach
  • Embankment breach
  • Civil Engineering
  • Water Resources Engineering
  • Dam
  • Dam failure
  • Peak flow
  • Peak discharge
  • Time to failure
  • Breach formation
  • Breach width
  • Dam failures
  • Historical failures
  • Historical catastrophes
  • Breach characteristics
  • Breach parameters
  • Failure database
  • Failure dataset

• Type of Item

  Dataset

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-zxvz-f675

• License

  CC0 1.0 Universal