Twenty Years of Dam Safety Risk Analysis and Risk Management Practice at the Bureau of Reclamation

The desire to more appropriately prioritize resources within U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and to better understand the risk posed by its dams to the public required Reclamation to move beyond a deterministic based assessment of its dams. Risk assessment and risk management were viewed as a logical method to prioritize these resources for the most benefit to the public. Through research and development, Reclamation pioneered the application of risk assessment to its portfolio of 366 high hazard dams. Since the late 1990s, Reclamation has performed over 1300 quantitative and semi-quantitative risk analysis on its portfolio of dams. This paper discusses early efforts in risk assessment, the evolution of risk analysis within Reclamation's dam safety program, and current use including risk-informed decision making. The paper will focus on current practice in risk assessment at Reclamation and the application of these assessments to the overall risk management of the dam safety program.