2013 – Justification and scope for revision of the ANCOLD Acceptable Flood Capacity guidelines

Peter Hill and Rory Nathan

The ANCOLD Acceptable Flood Capacity (AFC) guidelines were published in 2000 and provide guidance on the selection of design flood capacities for dams and specifically a deterministic fallback provision for spillway capacities. Since the guideline was published, there has been a continual evolution in dam safety management practices and related guidelines, including the 2003 ANCOLD guidelines on risk assessment and the current revision of Australian Rainfall and Runoff by Engineers Australia. This paper describes the scope of the current AFC guidelines and perceived opportunities for refinement. A survey of users was used to test and identify issues and gauge the need for the guideline to be updated. A number of topics were identified that would benefit from clarification or further guidance. These topics include consistency with other ANCOLD guidelines, clarity on the selection of the AFC, definition of the dam crest flood, freeboard and application to gated structures.