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Symposium Focus Areas

Guadalajara, Mexico | 2026 Symposium Theme | Water, Energy, and Society: The Evolving Role of Dams in a Changing World

The 2026 symposium will feature technical sessions spanning challenges and opportunities in dam safety and water infrastructure. The main topics (bold text) reflect a wide range of concerns across the dam lifecycle. The subtopics are included as suggestions or guidance in abstract preparation.

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Water Planning, Water Management, and Climate Resilience

  • Impacts of urbanization and climatic change on existing dams and reservoirs and remedies; case studies and costs.

  • Impacts of climatic change on needs and designs of dams, reservoirs and levees (water storage, floods mitigation, ocean rising…).

  • Resiliency and sustainability for dam operations and related infrastructure

  • Flexible reservoir operation for flood and drought mitigation

  • Environmental flows: New approaches to sustaining ecosystems

  • Dams as adaptive infrastructure in water-stressed regions

  • Integrated reservoir planning for urban, agricultural, and industrial supply

  • Climate change impacts water demand and availability

  • Inter-basin transfer systems and regional water networks

  • Multi-purpose reservoirs: balancing supply, flood control, energy, and environment

  • Resilience strategies for water-scarce and drought-prone regions

  • Financing models for large-scale water supply infrastructure

  • Groundwater recharge and conjunctive use with surface reservoirs

  • Public-private partnerships and institutional coordination

  • Innovations in dam intake and conveyance design

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Dam Safety Policy and Governance

  • Recent lessons from incidents and accidents concerning dams during the life cycle, including during construction.

  • Evaluation of precipitation and flood flows, estimation and quantification of the consequences, including social, economic and environmental aspects, in case of failure or incidents

  • Emergency planning: regulation, organization, information of the population and examples of implementation.

  • Dam Safety Governance: definition of responsibilities, periodic reviews, emergency action planning, failure modes and risk assessments, long-term maintenance, and implementation of actions around lessons learned.

  • Prioritization frameworks for rehabilitation investments

  • Funding models and international case studies in dam rehabilitation

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Dam Construction and Rehabilitation: Innovation and Lifecycle Extension

  • Advances in dam design and materials for sustainability 

  • Remote sensing and AI for monitoring during construction  

  • Rehabilitation of aging dams: Techniques and case studies 

  • Seismic retrofitting and hazard preparedness 

  • Innovative construction techniques for dams 

  • Use of advanced materials: high-performance concrete, geosynthetics, composites 

  • Construction in extreme environments (mountainous terrain, remote areas, arid zones) 

  • Integration of BIM and digital construction management tools 

  • Managing logistics and workforce challenges in large-scale construction projects 

  • Quality assurance and control in dam construction 

  • Seepage control, grouting, and core reconstruction 

  • Upgrading hydromechanical and electromechanical components

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Dam Performance Monitoring

  • Case studies and lessons learned in performance monitoring programs 

  • Long-term performance of existing and planned surveillance systems including reliability and accuracy  

  • Importance of visual inspections 

  • New technologies in dam and foundation instrumentation and monitoring 

  • Data acquisition and processing to predict and identify potential incidents 

  • Understanding and handling of large quantities of data, including artificial intelligence approach. 

  • Remote monitoring via drones, satellite imagery, and ground-based radar 

  • Distributed sensing techniques, applications, and case studies  

  • ADAS systems and real-time decision support tools 

  • Emergency preparedness through instrumentation-informed risk management 

  • Remote sensing and AI for dam safety monitoring 

  • Structural health assessments of aging dams 

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Flood Resiliency in Developed and Developing Countries

  • Dam operation for downstream flood attenuation 

  • Real-time flood forecasting and reservoir routing 

  • Adaptive design standards for increased hydrologic variability 

  • Integration of dams with levees, wetlands, and green infrastructure 

  • Flood early warning systems linked to dam operations 

  • Community-based flood risk management around dam-regulated rivers and unregulated tributaries 

  • Planning and design of emergency spillways 

  • Urban flood resilience strategies with upstream detention 

  • Lessons learned from recent extreme flood events globally 

  • Risk communication and public education in flood-prone zones 

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Sedimentation Management and Reservoir Longevity

  • Sediment yield estimation and watershed erosion control 

  • Sediment bypass, flushing, and sluicing techniques 

  • Reservoir sedimentation modeling and monitoring 

  • Adaptive sediment management policies for long-lived reservoirs 

  • Impacts of sedimentation on storage, hydropower, and flood control 

  • Managing sediment inflows during extreme flood events 

  • Case studies of successful desiltation or capacity restoration 

  • Designing dams and intakes to minimize sediment accumulation 

  • Upstream and downstream sediment balance and channel morphology 

  • Socio-environmental effects of reservoir sedimentation 

  • Sediment management under changing rainfall regimes 

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Fish Passage, Biodiversity and Environmental Integration

  • Design and performance evaluation of fish ladders and lifts 

  • Maintaining environmental flows to support aquatic ecosystems 

  • Habitat connectivity and restoration downstream of dams 

  • Integrating ecological concerns into dam design and operation 

  • Multi-objective optimization: hydropower vs. biodiversity 

  • Nature-based solutions and ecohydraulic modeling 

  • Migratory fish behavior studies and adaptive passage designs 

  • Reservoir habitat enhancement strategies 

  • Biodiversity offsetting and conservation planning 

  • Policy frameworks and compliance (e.g., EU WFD, US ESA, CBD) 

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Community Engagement in Dam Development

  • Culturally sensitive engagement strategies in dam development 

  • Case studies in indigenous-led water and dam governance 

  • Social impact assessments and benefit-sharing mechanisms 

  • Post-resettlement livelihood restoration strategies 

  • Protecting cultural and spiritual values tied to rivers 

  • Participatory monitoring and co-management models 

  • Building local capacity for long-term stewardship 

  • Conflict resolution in dam-affected communities 

  • Legal frameworks for indigenous rights and compensation 

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Tailings Dam
Safety

  • Advances in monitoring technologies for tailings facilities 

  • Risk-based design approaches and consequence classification 

  • Seepage control and dam stability analysis 

  • Emergency preparedness for downstream communities 

  • Regulatory compliance with international standards (e.g., GISTM) 

  • Case studies of failures and lessons learned 

  • Sustainable alternatives to tailings storage (e.g., filtered tailings) 

  • Closure planning and post-closure risk mitigation 

  • Seismic resilience and liquefaction risk 

  • Stakeholder engagement and transparency in mining regions 

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Dam Decommissioning and Removal

  • Extending operational life versus decommissioning: Decision-making tools 

  • Planning for partial versus full dam removal 

  • Sediment management during decommissioning 

  • Ecological restoration and river recovery post-removal 

  • Social and legal challenges in dam removal decisions 

  • Engineering and construction of safe removals 

  • Environmental impact assessments and mitigation 

  • Cultural heritage documentation and preservation 

  • Cost-benefit analysis of decommissioning versus rehabilitation 

  • Stakeholder engagement and communication strategies 

© ICOLD MÉXICO 2026

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