Environment Agency
The Environment Agency (EA) is the enforcement authority for the Reservoirs Act 1975 (as amended) in England.
Supporting information
Find out more about the limitations of this service, acknowledgements and other sites which contain useful information about dam and reservoir safety.
Limitations of use
RIKbase is published with good intent to inform reservoir operators, engineers and the public with information. We do not provide assurance that all the information in the database is completely accurate. It is the information available to us at the time, however it could be subject to error or misinterpretation.
You should not consider the database to be a comprehensive collection of all dam safety incidents, whether historic and current. The database is periodically updated with historic records and reflects only the data that we have been able to collect.
RIKbase provides basic information on dam safety incidents. The database began as a combination of records held by the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales for a limited number of records.
The quality of information about incidents is variable over a 100+ years period. Not all known historic incidents appear on this website.
Some incidents are recorded based only on anecdotal evidence. We have not attempted to investigate historic incidents to populate empty data fields.
We will update changes if new information becomes available.
Listed below are a number of links to sites which you may find of interest.
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Natural Resources Wales
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is the enforcement authority for the Reservoirs Act 1975 (as amended) in Wales. -
The British Dam Society
The British Dam Society (BDS) is an Associated Society of the Institution of Civil Engineers. It consists of individual and corporate members. It is open to anyone wanting to share experience or knowledge of all aspects of dams and reservoirs.
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International Commision on Large Dams
ICOLD leads the profession in setting standards and guidelines to ensure that dams are built and operated safely, efficiently, economically, and are environmentally sustainable and socially equitable. ICOLD is assisting nations to prepare to meet the challenges of the 21st century in the development and management of the world’s water and hydropower resources.
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Collaborative Learning for Safer Structures UK
CROSS-UK is a confidential reporting system which allows professionals working in the built environment to report on fire and structural safety issues. Reservoir incidents are not required to be reported to CROSS-UK, but their website may contain case studies from other sectors which may be of interest to you.
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Association of State Dam Safety Officials
Presented within this website are links to individual case studies as well as lessons learned pages that summarize historical dam incidents and failures and the valuable information gleaned from them. Dam safety engineers, dam operators, dam owners, regulators, emergency managers, academia, and students are encouraged to use the material presented herein.