Conference Workshop
Current Practice in Seismic Dam Engineering Workshop - Wednesday 11 November 2009
The ‘Current Practice in Seismic Dam Engineering’ workshop will include presentations from seismic experts and key stakeholders on modern dam safety expectations and seismic engineering practice. A question and answer session will provide the opportunity for delegates to obtain specific topical information from the presenters. The status of the ANCOLD Guidelines on Design of Dams for Earthquake (1998) against modern industry practice will also be discussed.
Workshop Invited Speakers
Dr Martin Wieland
Chairman of ICOLD Committee on Seismic Aspects of Dam Engineering
Dr Martin Wieland is the
Chairman of the ICOLD
Committee on Seismic Aspects
of Dam Design. He is also the
Chairman of the Earthquake
Committee of the Swiss Dam
Society. He is a senior dam
and earthquake expert at
Poyry Energy Ltd. in Zurich,
Switzerland, where he has
been involved in the seismic safety evaluation of some of
the world’s largest dams and other infrastructure projects.
He has worked on the safety evaluation of the following
large arch dams: Mauvoisin (250 m high; Switzerland),
Deriner (250 m high; Turkey), Dez (203 m), Karun I (200
m) and Ghir (135 m high; Iran) and he was a member
of the team, which evaluated the safety of the 106 m
high Sefid Rud buttress dam following the June 21, 1990
Manjil earthquake. He was also the seismic expert for the
proposed 288 m high Dibang gravity dam in the Northeast
of India.
He was team leader of the joint CHINCOLD-ICOLD team
inspecting dams damaged by the May 12, 2008 Wenchuan
earthquake in Sichuan province, China. Some 2666 dams
have been affected by this earthquake.
From 1980 to 1990, he was a faculty member and division
chairman at the Asian Institute of Technology (graduate
school) in Bangkok, Thailand.
He obtained his MSc and PhD in civil engineering from the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland
in 1971 and 1978, respectively. He is a member of the
Structural Advisory Board for the Panama Canal Authority (new ship locks for the Panama Canal). He is also a member
of the panel of experts for the heightening of the Roseires
dam in Sudan and the 230 m high Karun 4 arch dam in Iran.
He has received an Honorary Professorship from Hohai
University in Nanjing, China and was a member of the
board of directors of the Swiss Society of Earthquake
Engineering and Structural Dynamics (1993-2005) and the
Civil Engineering Division of the Swiss Society of Engineers
and Architects. He is also an editorial board member of the
international journals on Dam Engineering, and Engineering
Structures and authored more than 200 technical papers in
the fields of dam and earthquake engineering.
Dr Lelio Mejia
URS Corporation
Dr Lelio Mejia has been
involved with a broad range
of geotechnical, earthquake,
dam, and foundation
engineering projects. He has
directed numerous dynamic
response analyses and seismic
stability and design studies of
earth structures, dams, and
foundations. He has extensive
experience in the evaluation of soil liquefaction and the
use of ground treatment methods to mitigate the effects
of liquefaction. He has also conducted soil-structure
interaction analyses of hydraulic structures, power plant
and harbor facilities, and has performed seismic risk
analyses and engineering characterization of earthquake
ground motions for dams, industrial facilities, bridges, and
high-rise buildings.
He has directed the investigations and seismic stability
studies of over 25 large earth dams and has been involved
in the design and construction of over 15 major dam
projects. In addition, he has managed the design andoverseen the construction of several dam seismic
rehabilitations including projects over $50 million in
construction cost. Many of those projects are located
in California and have involved review by the California
Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD). He successfully led
those projects through the regulatory approval process
of DSOD, and other agencies such as the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC). While at the University of California he developed
numerical techniques for the three-dimensional dynamic
response analysis of rock and earthfill dams and applied
these methods to study the dynamic behaviour of dams
in narrow canyons. He recently conducted research on
the applicability of fully nonlinear finite element methods
to the dynamic response analysis of earth structures and
dams. In addition, he has previously conducted research
on the mechanisms of liquefaction failure during the
1989 Loma Prieta, California earthquake.
He is a Secretarial Appointee to the Advisory Committee
on Structural Safety of Department of Veterans Affairs
Facilities and has been a Lecturer of Geotechnical
Earthquake Engineering at the University of California
at Davis, CA, an Extension Instructor in Geotechnical
Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley,
CA, and a member of the editorial board for the ASCE
Journal of Geotechnical and Geo-environmental
Engineering. He has served as a National Science
Foundation Panellist for the CAREER Program and other
NSF research programs in Geotechnical and Geohazards
Systems, and has served on technical review boards
for the US Bureau of Reclamation, the US Army Corps
of Engineers, and the California Department of Water
Resources on various dam projects, and for other owners
on foundation engineering projects.
Workshop Program
0830 – 0840 Welcome and opening
0900 – 0935 Keynote Presentation 1 -
Dr Martin Wieland
0945 – 1020 Keynote Presentation 2 -
Dr Lelio Mejia
1020 – 1050 MORNING REFRESHMENTS
1040 – 1200 Session 1
1200 – 1250 LUNCH
1250 – 1500 Session 2
1500 – 1530 AFTERNOON REFRESHMENT
1530 – 1650 Session 3
1650 – 1730 Workshops Conclude
Information on the Workshop Session is provisional and subject to change. Session details will be updated on the conference website in the near future.
Monday 23 Nov 2009
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