Funding dam safety regulation: an international comparative analysis and example application in Australia

ABSTRACT

Dam failures that cause significant adverse downstream impacts continue to occur globally. Hence, effective, adequately resourced dam safety regulation is critical for the safety of dams and downstream communities. This paper explores options for regulatory funding and resourcing according to a selected set of relevant key factors along a continuum of dam safety assurance. An international comparative analysis of 15 jurisdictional case studies against the key factors identifies trends representing indicative precedents. A procedure is developed to help identify increasingly relevant precedents for guiding target jurisdictions on potentially suitable options. Illustrative application to a real case in Australia is provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Dam safety assurance
• regulation
• international case studies
• administrative capacity
• regulatory funding options
• Australia

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the many colleagues who provided valuable feedback, guidance, data and information on the case studies used and updated in this paper. These originated from the World Bank’s 2020 dam safety global comparative study titled ’Laying the Foundations: A Global Analysis of Regulatory Frameworks for the Safety of Dams and Downstream Communities’ . Special thanks to Mr Satoru Ueda, Lead Dam Specialist at the World Bank, for his valuable contributions to the global study and continued guidance. Funding for the development of the case studies underlying the assessment and that provide a platform for the novel comparative analyses made in this paper was provided by the World Bank through the Japan–World Bank Program for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management in Developing Countries, the Water Partnership Program and the Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its board of executive directors or the governments they represent.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2022.2092841

Correction Statement

*Esteban Boj García is now at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Central Asia Department, Eschborn, GermanyThis article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the World Bank through grants from the Japan–World Bank Program for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management in Developing Countries [grant numbers TF019150; TF0A3923], the Water Partnership Program [grant numbers TF0A1638; TF0A2744; TF0A2717; TF0A2687; TF0A2607; TF0A3681], and the Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership [TF0B6276].