Guidelines and tools

With the coming into force of the new Federal Act on Water Retaining Facilities as well as the corresponding Water Retaining Facilities Ordinance of January 1st 2013, a revision of the old guidelines of 2002 has been necessary, taking the experience made so far into account. The presently valid guideline consists of parts A, B, C1, C2, C3, D and E.

Part A of the newly revised guideline deals with the regulatory framework and with the goals and purposes of the guideline, explains the safety concept for dams, includes a glossary for the guideline, gives an overview of the procedures relating to the construction and the operation of water retaining facilities and contains the list of references related to the guideline. This part replaces chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.1 and 5.2 of the main guideline 2002 on dam safety as well as chapter 1 of the 2002 base document related to the criteria for subjecting water retaining facilities to the legislation.

Part B (dealing with the particular risk potential as a criterion for subjecting a water retaining facility to the legislation) replaces chapters 5.3 and 5.4 of the main guideline on dam safety of 2002 as well as chapters 2 and 3 of the base document on the subjecting criteria of 2002.

Part C1 provides the procedure for the planning approval and the subsequent construction of dams as well as the operating and loading cases to be considered for the design of dams. It replaces chapters 6 and 9 of the main guideline on dam safety of 2002 as well as the corresponding base document of 2002.

Part C2 deals with the flood safety analysis of dams and replaces chapter 7 of the main guideline on dam safety of 2002 as well as the corresponding base document of 2008.

Part C3 deals with the earthquake safety analysis of dams and replaces chapters 8 of the main guideline on dam safety of 2002 as well as the corresponding base document of 2003.

Part D (dealing with the commissioning, maintenance and surveillance of water retaining facilities) specifies the procedure for commissioning and operation of water retaining facilities, defines the content of the surveillance regulations, specifies the continual inspections, the annual inspections and the five-yearly inspections, specifies the content of the archiving, specifies the procedure of planned overhauls and specifies the notifications of the operators to the supervisory authority. This part replaces chapters 10 and 11 of the main guideline 2002 on dam safety as well as the base document related to the surveillance and maintenance of 2002.

Part E (dealing with the emergency concept) specifies the requirements for the emergency concept of the operator and for the coordination of the emergency concept with the planning of the organs of civil defense bodies, gives an overview of the responsibilities for the creation of the emergency concept and for the handling of emergency situations, presents the means of alarm and the danger levels, and specifies the content of the emergency regulations.

Documents

Guidelines and tools

ID: 476

Previous versions of the guideline

Last modification 19.12.2017

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