| Abstract | Recognizing the need to adapt our new and existing infrastructure and operation procedures to withstand increased climatic loads and degradation mechanisms, the National Research Council Canada (NRC) has been collaborating with Infrastructure Canada to develop and revise codes, specifications, guidelines and assessment tools to advance adaptation solutions for Canadian infrastructure since 2016. Phase 1 of the Climate Resilient Buildings and Core Public Infrastructure (CRBCPI) initiative was undertaken at the NRC between 2016 and 2021 to integrate climate resilience into building and infrastructure design, guides, standards and codes. The target infrastructure types for the CRBCPI initiative included buildings, bridges, roads, rail, transit, and water and wastewater systems. In 2021, the NRC received approval to proceed with Phase 2 of the initiative, the Climate Resilient Built Environment (CRBE). In addition to the previously mentioned infrastructure types, dams are included in the scope of the CRBE initiative.
Dams retain enormous amounts of water and are designed to resist hydraulic loads, therefore, it is expected that factors related to climate change that affect water flow will also affect dams. Unexpected interruptions in dam operations may lead to significant economic loss, while dam failures may be catastrophic. Historically, dam design, construction and operation have been carried out assuming stationary climatic and non-climatic conditions. In today's changing climate, the assumptions of stationary climatic baselines may no longer be appropriate for long-term dam design and operations. The CRBE's Climate Resilient Dams (CRD) theme will focus on the development of technologies, procedures and guidelines for the adaptation of publicly-owned water dams to mitigate the adverse effects of a changing climate. It should be noted that tailing and mining dams are not included in the scope of the CRD project.
Water dams in Canada are owned by various entities such as federal and provincial governments, utilities and municipalities, agricultural districts, private organizations, and individuals. Canada does not have a federal regulatory agency or a unified program to guide the development of requirements for the safe management of dams. None of the provinces and territories had any specific legislation on dam safety until 1978 when the Province of Alberta established the first dam safety regulatory program in response to concerns due to a number of dam failures around the world. The main purpose of current dam safety regulations is to ensure that dams and their appurtenant and hydraulic structures are designed, constructed, maintained, operated and decommissioned with the best available technology and best practices. It should be noted that none of the dam safety regulations reviewed within the scope of this project took into consideration or directly mentioned climate change. In order to address this gap, the objectives of this project are: (1) to identify knowledge gaps in the adaptation of Canadian dams to climate change; and (2) to develop future research directions for the NRC’s Construction Research Centre in the areas of climatic data requirements, operations, water quality, monitoring, geotechnical/structural aspects and material durability. |
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