Strategies for Dam Safety Risk Management in Mexico

Safety protocols for dams worldwide are currently based mainly on: understanding possible failures; quantitative risk assessment; justification of risks taken (with reference to accepted standards and good practices); historical records of dam performance; new criteria and state-of-the art designs; the need to prioritize research; solutions to known problems; better communication of risks to the public, civil organizations and decision- makers; and the improvement of risk management through clearly defining and assigning responsibilities (Bowles, 2013). In addition, these protocols are equally applied to dam owners, regulatory organizations, insurance companies and consulting companies. This article discusses the current framework used to evaluate dam safety at the international level and proposes a specific methodology to evaluate existing dams in Mexico. It also discusses the urgent need to study the possibility of removing dams that present unacceptable risks and for which rehabilitation is not cost-effective

Nuevo método de diseño sísmico para cortinas de tierra y enrocamiento, y de taludes

24 p

El efecto de los sismos en los acueductos

10 p

Seismic vulnerability of buried pipelines

Existen varios documentos e investigaciones que señalan los daños causados por los fuertes sismos del pasado siglo a las tuberías de agua potable, drenaje y gas. Precisamente los sismos acontecidos en México en septiembre de 1985 corresponden a esta clase de sismos que causaron fuertes daños a varias tuberías, tanto en el Distrito Federal como en el Puerto Industrial Lázaro Cárdenas. Daños semejantes han ocurrido en fechas más recientes, como es el caso de los sismos de Loma Prieta en 1989 (Distrito de Marina), Northridge, 1994, en California, E.U.A., y en Kobe, Japón, en 1995. En este trabajo se hace ver la problemática del daño que los sismos producen sobre las tuberías enterradas, las consecuencias de su fallamiento y la metodología que hoy en día existe para su análisis al considerar los efectos de las deformaciones permanentes del suelo y él de la propagación de ondas sísmicas. Se presentan igualmente algunos procedimientos simplificados disponibles para tomar en cuenta este efecto en el diseño de tuberías continuas y segmentadas. Finalmente se dan algunas recomendaciones que se deberán tomar en cuenta en el diseño e instalación de tuberías ubicadas en zonas sísmicas. doi: https://doi.org/10.22201/igeof.00167169p.2003.42.2.26

Consideraciones sísmicas en el diseño de tuberías

16 p

Geotecnia en ingeniería de presas

577 p

New method for seismic design of earth and rockfill dams and slopes.

A description is presented of some of the traditional two-dimensional methods used in practical engineering and a new two-dimensional analytical method to design and evaluate the stability of earth and rockfill dams. The methods covered in this article focus on the analysis of medium height dams and slopes that compose the reservoir in regions with intermediate seismic risk and do not merit three-dimensional analysis due to the geometry of the dam site (in the case of dams), the geological characteristics and the nearness to populated sites. For this purpose, the principal factors that influence the slope stability of dams and hillsides are discussed, as well as the geotechnical, geologic and seismic information necessary to conduct stability analyses. Also, the common methods used in engineering practices to determine the stability of dams and slopes are reviewed, according to the importance of the work, and the limitations of each method are discussed. Based on this analysis, a new method is proposed which overcomes some of the main deficiencies in the methods currently used, leading to more realistic models. Furthermore, the capabilities of the proposed method are evaluated through comparisons with results obtained from a shaking table test