Dam Failure Effects on Local/Regional Critical Infrastructures

The paper will focus on multi-hazard assessment following the failure of the Ezer dam on Jijia river. All induced risks are analyzed in terms of critical infrastructure protection, considering three possible failure scenarios.

The challenge of these scenarios is to consider the possible effects (continue effects, domino effect, cascading effects) induced by a single hazard, but which may cause one or more sequential hazards. In all three possible failure scenarios it was considered that the bottom gates are not operational, being blocked. The upper boundary condition in the model is the flood with the maximum discharge 0.1%.

This area chosen for analysis is economically underdeveloped. The protective measures are quite low and the exposure generated by accidents at the hydraulic structures or by the extreme weather conditions is quite high either for the existing economic context or for the future investments in those areas.

The implementation by the decision makers of measures for reducing the risk or the multiple risks cannot be done at regional level if all the vulnerabilities in the area are not widely known.