Document Details

Lessons from the Oroville dam

Farshid Vahedifard, Shahriar Shahrokhabadi, Elisa Ragno, Iman Mallakpour, Amir AghaKouchak | March 17th, 2017


California has experienced tremendous amounts of precipitation in the past few months, leading to the wettest year on record (as of mid-rainy season) immediately after a 5-year record-setting drought over the region. On 7 February 2017, the Oroville dam, the tallest dam in North America, suffered damage when unexpected sediments, intensified by floods in a drought-stricken area, can substantially affect the operation of hundreds of dams and levees in California.

Keywords

infrastructure, risk assessment, sediment, water project operations