| In Vietnam, there are more than 6,500 dams. Many dams over 30-50 years old are considered to be in the \"old\" stage. Their existence always carries risks, which can lead to incidents and disasters for people and property. Currently, dam safety assessment has been undertaken using a standards-based approach. This traditional approach plays a crucial role in the design of new dams, as well as the safety assessment of existing dams. However, this approach has limitations in terms of indirectly assessing dam failures as well as addressing input uncertainties. In recent years, many developed countries have moved towards a risk-based approach in dam safety management. This approach overcomes the weaknesses of traditional approaches to dam safety evaluation; to serve this new model of practice, various dam safety assessment tools have been created. In this study, we applied the risk-based approach for dam safety assessment for Vietnam. First, an dam safety assessment framework for Vietnam was proposed. Second, we conducted a survey to collect the data for all dams in the whole country. Third, the dam safety assessment result was integrated into GIS environment to provide dam safety assessment map for the whole country. Dam safety assessment tool in combination with GIS framework could assist dam safety management agencies in Vietnam in managing, planning, and preventing incidents and catastrophes that may occur. |
