Abstract

CAMPOS-ARANDA, Daniel F.. Procedure for hydrological safety assessment of small irrigation dams (without hydrometry). Agrociencia [online]. 2008, vol.42, n.5, pp.551-563. ISSN 2521-9766.

In this paper is defined the concept of hydrologic dam safety, and several definitions of watersheds and small dams are cited as the framework for the objective of this study. A description is given of how the available hydrometric information on annual flows and volumes of 16 important Mexican dams was processed. Based on the results of these analyses, a six-step procedure was formulated to construct slender and flat Gamma-type hydrographs for small watersheds for which there is no hydrometric data. With these hydrographs, hydrologic safety of a small dam can be assessed. A numerical contrast application is presented and two conclusions indicate that the procedure is simple and easily applied, and that the results are of vital importance, especially for dams with hydrologic risk for which quantitative solutions are necessary when the dam is to be raised or the capacity of the spillways is to be enlarged. A procedure such as this is important since there are thousands of small irrigation dams in México for which this hydrometric information is not available and which urgently require hydrological evaluation.

Keywords : Small watersheds; Gamma hydrographs; small dams; hydrological safety; peak time.