Reactive improvement of environmental policies: lessons from the Mariana and Brumadinho disasters

The State is not always able to proactively improve environmental policies. Eventually, policy improvements are a result of disasters that expose pre-existing problems. This situation is reflected in the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil), where, after the failures of the Fundão and B1 tailings dam, in Mariana and Brumadinho, several problems in dam safety and emergency policies were exposed. This study had a twofold objective: 1) to identify the mechanisms used by the government of Minas Gerais to improve environmental policies, and 2) to understand how the Mariana and Brumadinho’s disasters affected dam safety and emergency policies. Based on semi-structured interviews and regulatory analysis, the study revealed that the state government of Minas Gerais has been predominantly reactive in controlling environmental policies. Additionally, it was observed that the disasters catalysed a learning process that culminated in potentially better dam safety policies.

Decision Support System in Thailand's Dam Safety with a Mobile Application for Public Relations

This paper describes the decision-making based on civil engineering expertise of the Dam Safety Remote Monitoring System: DS-RMS, which decides on action-based advice depending on every-day scenarios and special occurrences such as earthquakes and floods. The system has been in full operation since 2016 and automatically evaluates 35 failure modes for 3 major dam types 24 hours a day. Key benefits include quick and reliable access to current information about the dams and being a reliever to dam executives in critical situations. In further development, parts of the real-time dam information were selected and made available to the public together with dam safety evaluation results automatically and continuously via a mobile application.

Outlier Detection Based on Multivariable Panel Data and K-Means Clustering for Dam Deformation Monitoring Data

A dam is a super-structure widely used in water conservancy engineering fields, and its long-term safety is a focus of social concern. Deformation is a crucial evaluation index and comprehensive reflection of the structural state of dams, and thus there are many research papers on dam deformation data analysis. However, the accuracy of deformation data is the premise of dam safety monitoring analysis, and original deformation data may have some outliers caused by manual errors or instruments aging after long-time running. These abnormal data have a negative impact on the evaluation of dam structural safety. In this study, an analytical method for detecting outliers of dam deformation data was established based on multivariable panel data and K-means clustering theory. First, we arranged the original spatiotemporal monitoring data into the multivariable panel data format. Second, the correlation coefficients between the deformation signals of different measuring points were studied based on K-means clustering theory. Third, the outlier detection rules were established through the changes of the correlation coefficients. Finally, the proposed model was applied to the Jinping-I Arch Dam in China which is the highest dam in the world, and results indicate that the detection method has high accuracy detection ability, which is valuable in dam safety monitoring applications.

ordem da forma jurídica e as políticas de segurança de barragens de rejeitos minerais

O trabalho examina, por meio de uma abordagem interdisciplinar, problemas que tem surgido com as atividades de mineração e construção de barragens de rejeito no Brasil, com reflexões jurídicas, ambien­tais e políticas. Para isso, aborda as respostas internacionais, desafios da gestão de resíduos e prevenção de acidentes, cotejando-as com a legislação brasileira e com a forma como são classificadas as barragens dentro da Política Nacional de Segurança de Barragens (PNSB). Utilizando de uma revisão bibliográfica robusta e crítica foi possível perceber que o atual modelo adotado no Brasil cria e recria distorções espa­ciais e temporais, afetando os mais diversos territórios. Hoje o Estado permite que as empresas de mine­ração façam o que quiserem, da forma que desejarem, construindo barragens cada vez maiores, sem li­mitadores. Com a expansão das barragens ocorre um desperdício de natureza, elevação dos riscos e vul­nerabilidades nos territórios e também, uma redução da eficiência produtiva, sendo o Estado correspon­sável em casos de desastres/crimes corporativos. Palavras-chave: barragem de rejeitos; interdisciplinaridade; legislação; regulação; fiscalização. Abstract The work examines, through an interdisciplinary approach, problems that have arisen with the activities of mining and construction of tailings dams in Brazil, with legal, environmental and political reflections. To this end, it addresses international responses, challenges of waste management and accident prevention, comatose them with Brazilian legislation and how dams are classified within the National Dam Safety Policy (PNSB). Using a robust and critical literature review, it was possible to perceive that the current model adopted in Brazil creates and recreates spatial and time distortions, affecting the most diverse territories. Today the state allows mining companies to do what they want, as they wish, building ever larger dams without limiters. With the expansion of the dams occurs a waste of nature, increased risks and vulnerabilities in the territories and also a reduction of productive efficiency, being the state coresponsible in cases of disasters / corporate crimes. Keywords: tailings dams; interdisciplinarity; legislation; regulation; surveillance. El orden de la forma legal y las políticas de seguridad de las presas de relaves minerales Resumen La obra examina, a través de un enfoque interdisciplinario, los problemas que han surgido con las activi­dades de minería y construcción de represas de relaves en Brasil, con reflexiones legales, ambientales y políticas. Con este fin, aborda las respuestas internacionales, los desafíos de la gestión de residuos y la prevención de accidentes, en coma con la legislación brasileña y cómo se clasifican las presas dentro de la Política Nacional de Seguridad de presas (PNSB). Mediante una revisión de la literatura sólida y crítica, fue posible percibir que el modelo actual adoptado en Brasil crea y recrea distorsiones espaciales y de tiempo, afectando a los territorios más diversos. Hoy en día el estado permite a las empresas mineras hacer lo que quieran, como deseen, construyendo presas cada vez más grandes sin limitadores. Con la expansión de las presas se produce un desperdicio de naturaleza, mayores riesgos y vulnerabilidades en los territorios y también una reducción de la eficiencia productiva, siendo el núcleo estatal responsable en casos de desastres / delitos corporativos. Palabras clave: presa de relaves; interdisciplinaridad; legislación; reglamento; vigilancia.

Wind-Wave Interaction in Sengguruh Reservoir and The Effect to Riprap Material

The Sengguruh Dam is one of the large dams managed by Jasa Tirta I Public Company. This reservoir has been operating for more than 38 years (operating since 1982 and the latest data is for 2020). This research was conducted to determine the effect of wind and the interaction of wind on the water in the Sengguruh Dam. Most of the interaction of water and wind is mostly carried out on coastal structures but rarely investigated in the upstream area of the river basin. Investigations were carried out to obtain an overview and characteristics of the influence of the two variables of wind and water on the hydraulics of the reservoir storage, sedimentation in the water column, and side effects of the embankment material in the riprap dam. This study will provide an overview of the condition of the Sengguruh Dam which is full of sediment and shows the wind and water interaction that occurs in the reservoir as well as the potential hazards that are quite large for the management of water resources and disasters in the surrounding community if there is a high risk or threat that occurs if these conditions do not meet dam safety standards in Indonesia.

Blasts from the past: Reimagining historical storms with model simulations to modernize dam safety and flood risk assessment

Accurate estimation of the potential “upper limit” for extreme precipitation is critical for dam safety and water resources management, as dam failures pose significant risks to life and property. Methods used to estimate the theoretical “upper limit” of precipitation are often outdated and in need of updating. The rarity of extreme events means that old storms with limited observational data are often used to define the upper bound of precipitation. Observations of many important old storms are limited in spatial and temporal coverage, and sometimes of dubious quality. This reduces confidence in flood hazard assessments used in dam safety evaluations and leads to unknown or uncertain societal risk.This paper describes a method for generating and applying ensembles of high-resolution, state-of-the-art numerical model simulations of historical past extreme precipitation events to meet contemporary stakeholder needs. The method was designed as part of a research-to-application-focused partnership project to update state dam safety rules in Colorado and New Mexico. The results demonstrated multiple stakeholder and user benefits which were applied directly into storm analyses utilized for extreme rainfall estimation, and diagnostics were developed and ultimately used to update Colorado state dam safety rules, officially passed in January 2020. We discuss how what started as a prototype research foray to meet a specific user need may ultimately inform wider adoption of numerical simulations for water resources risk assessment, and how the historical event downscaling method performed offers near-term, implementable improvements to current dam safety flood risk estimates that can better serve society today.

A three-stage online anomaly identification model for monitoring data in dams

The monitoring of data anomaly identification is an important basis for dam safety online monitoring and evaluation. In this research, a cluster of anomaly identification models for dam safety monitoring data was constructed, and a three-stage online anomaly identification method was proposed to discriminate outliers. The proposed method combined anomaly detection for measured values based on a single-point time series simulation, measurement error reduction based on remote retesting and spatio-temporal analysis, and environmental response mutation recognition. It brought about efficient and accurate detection for data mutation and online classified identification for its inducement. Additionally, problems such as missing outliers, misjudging normal values induced by the environmental response, and difficulty in online identification for measurement errors were effectively solved. The research productions were applied to the online monitoring system for the safety risk of reservoirs and dams in the Dadu River Basin. The results showed that the proposed method could effectively improve the accuracy of anomaly identification and reduce the misjudgment and omission rate to less than 2%. It could also successfully recognize and subtract nonstructural anomalies such as accidental errors, instrument faults, and environmental responses online, which provided reliable data for online dam safety monitoring.