Dam safety technical resources

Last updated on March 18, 2025

These categorized documents, templates and links provide helpful information and guidance for dam owners and operators and their consultants when designing new dams, undertaking inspections, maintenance and surveillance, or assessing deficiencies at an existing dam.

Design, construction, and decommissioning guidelines

Operations, inspection and maintenance

Dam emergency planning

The B.C. Dam Emergency Response Plan (PDF, 1.6MB) defines the scope and structure of the B.C. government’s involvement when responding to a dam emergency. B.C. government involvement may be jointly shared with federal agencies, local government, First Nations and industry.

Dam owners are required to create their own specific Dam Emergency Plan and distribute the plan to local emergency authorities. For information on how to create a Dam Emergency Plan, review:

Dam safety review

Hazards and Failure Modes Analysis (HFMM)

Dam hydrologic loading estimation

EGBC Practice Advisory on determining dam hydrological loading

Engineers and Geoscientists BC (EGBC) issued a practice advisory in 2022 for registrants who provide service related to dam hydrological loading. This Practice Advisory on Dam Hydrological Loading (PDF, 185KB) provides information to develop dam hydrological loading estimates.

B.C. Extreme Flood Project

The B.C. Extreme Flood Project supplements available hydrology and hydrometeorological information. The guidance documents and project deliverables are useful for the design of dams, spillways, dikes, and stream crossings.

These include the:

B.C. Regional Flood Frequency Analysis Portal that shows locations of hydrometric stations and corresponding drainage areas analyzed to estimate peak flow events
MetPortal that hosts Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) data along with spatial and temporal patterns of Probable Maximum Storms (PMS) across the province

Previous outdated PMF Guidance

The previous guidance for generating Probable Maximum Floods (PMF) in British Columbia is no longer recommended. The 2010 PMF Estimator for BC (3.8MB) report is for reference only. It should only be used to provide a preliminary estimate of PMFs or as a rough check on detailed PMF analyses.

Additional resources

Canadian Dam Association
Dam Safety Toolbox for the current guidelines and recommendations used by Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO) members
Federal (USA) Emergency Management Agency – Dam Safety Publications and Resources
Federal (USA) Energy Regulatory Commission – Dam Safety and Inspection
State of Washington – Dam Safety
US Army Corps of Engineers – Dam Safety Program
US Department of the Interior – Bureau of Reclamation
Canadian Water Resources Association
Canadian Standards Association Group Standards Research (2022): Climate Change Adaptations for Dams - A Review of Climate Vulnerabilities, Adaptation Measures, and Opportunities for Growth in the Canadian Dams Context (PDF, 1.8MB)

Dam safety training courses are conducted periodically by the BC Water and Waste Association and the Water Supply Association of BC. You may find information on our annual workshops at our Education and Training page.

For more information about eligible consultants who are qualified to conduct dam safety related work, contact:

Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia

Contact information

For general questions or comments about dam safety, please email us at Dam.Safety@gov.bc.ca.

Download a copy of B.C. Dam Safety Program contacts (PDF, 202KB).

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