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California WaterBlog

Tag: Dam Safety

  • Dam-Failure Flood Risk in California: How to Manage Low-Probability Hazards

    by Kallee Bareket-Shavit, Ryan Miller, and Nicholas Pinter Every year, damaging floods strike somewhere around the world, including sometimes in California like during winter 2022-23. Even a house with just a 1% chance of flooding each year (by the so-called “100-year flood”) has a 26% chance of inundation over a 30-year mortgage. Other natural hazards…

  • Strategic Decision Making for Dam Removal Planning

    By Suman Jumani, Ted Grantham, Lucy Andrews, Jeanette Howard California has a dam problem. Since the start of the 20th century, the state has built thousands of dams on its rivers and streams. Now, more than 75% of the largest dams (totaling over 900) are greater than 50 years old, and the mean age is…