Risk of River Diversion during Dam Construction: History Edit
Subjects: Engineering, Civil
Dams are vital for water resource utilization, and river diversion is key for dam construction safety. 

Generally, dams are built in watercourses, therefore interferences from river flow are the main risk source during construction process. To free the dam foundation pit from river water, certain engineering method should be applied in advance i.e., river diversion during dam construction. This type of temporary flow control system can partly or completely divert the river so that a dry riverbed is provided for dam construction. For dam construction diversion modes, the most common one involves a pair of river-cutoff cofferdams and diversion tunnels. Moreover, as diversion buildings will be abandoned after dam construction, cofferdams are mainly earth-rock structures for cost reasons. Hence, for cofferdam and tunnel diversion, when cofferdam overtopping occurs under extreme flood conditions, earth-rock cofferdam may breach, then construction pits are submerged, and a series of subsequent impacts are posed on the whole construction project. Obviously once the flood overtops the upstream cofferdam of a dam construction diversion system, the project can be considered to have suffered a major accident and such failure constitutes the main risk event of river diversion during dam construction.

  • River Diversion
  • Risk Analysis

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References

  1. Zida Song; Quan Liu; Zhigen Hu; Huian Li; Jianqing Xiong; Assessment of Sediment Impact on the Risk of River Diversion during Dam Construction: A Simulation-Based Project Study on the Jing River, China. Water 2018, 10, 217, 10.3390/w10020217.
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