ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Since dams’ ageing involves potential deterioration (many dams have been designed for an effective life of 50 years and most of them are quickly approaching this age), technical standards are regularly improved and public awareness about dam safety is more and more increasing, the need to maintain and upgrade the dams is a major concern. In the frame of the public funded research program for supporting and improving the electric system in Italy, a risk-indexing tool has been developed to assist dam owners and managers in prioritization of maintenance, repair and upgrade of dams. The tool is based upon a procedure proposed for embankment dams by G.R. Andersen (and others) in 1999, which has been extended by the authors to consider concrete dams as well, and, in order to deal with the specificity of the Italian dams population, it has been suitably adapted. The tool has been extensively tested on a significant sample group of Italian dams and the relative outcomes will be presented and discussed in the paper.
