SEISMIC SAFETY ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY IN THE NEW IRANIAN DAM SAFETY GUIDELINE

Iran as one of the Asian developing countries has more than 300 dams under operation and many others under construction. Many large dams have been constructed in the country in recent decades. The issue of dam safety management and assessment in Iran had not been under attention as much as the design and construction was. Although there have been few threats and damages in the history of dams in Iran, the attention to dam safety is growing in the country due to the increase in the number of dams and also natural disasters like earthquake and flood inrecent years. The Iranian dam safety assessment guideline has started to be prepared since 2007 and is now completed and under approval by the authorities. In this paper the main concerns in dam seismic safety management and assessment in Iran have been discussed. It presents the aspects and issues considered in the Iranian guideline and also give a brief overview of the materials and frame work of it. The paper also compares the changes and differences of the guideline compared to the European, American and some Asian ones and the way to prepare it