The Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists (AEG), Dams Technical Working Group, is proud to present a workshop that focuses on the role and contribution of engineering geologists and geotechnical engineers in the Risk Informed Decision Making (RIDM) process in managing dam and levee safety programs.  Risks associated with geological potential failure modes and communicating these conditions to the Risk Assessment (RA) team will be emphasized including the methodology, and implementation of RA for dam and levee foundations.

This outstanding three-day workshop is intended to provide the following:

• Present the background, reasoning/basis, and implementation of Risk Informed Decision Making (RIDM) currently used by various state and Federal agencies.

• Provide focused instruction on key geologic Potential Failure Modes (PFMs).

• Instruct on how to identify, evaluate, and communicate geological and geotechnical information for use in a Risk Assessment (RA).

• Educate attendees on how PFMs are evaluated in the RA process to provide an understanding of the risk of failure from the PFM.

• Train engineering geologists and geotechnical engineers on the mechanics of specific PFMs and how they apply to a RA.

• Emphasize how geologists and geotechnical engineers effectively communicate with dam owners and professionals in other disciplines.

Attendees will also participate in facilitated break-out sessions where they will work through geological based PMFs using a semi-quantitative approach to assess the probability of failure.  The facilitators will be employees experienced in RA from Federal, state and private entities.  The results from the various breakout sessions will be discussed in an open-forum to present the potential agreement and ranges in results.

Attendees will leave the workshop with a general understanding of RIDM, tools used in RIDM, how semi-quantitative failure probabilities are estimated, and public domain case histories that were key in development of RIDM, PFMs, and RA.