In Europe and elsewhere the economically feasible water resources have been greatly developed until the 1970s. qeb} ~FL"o
Although large dams belong to the first structures, which have been designed systematically against earthquakes C-\3,
since the 1930s, the seismic safety of these dams is unknown, as most of them have been designed using seismic 'uF75C
design criteria and methods of analysis that are considered obsolete today. The fact that no major dams have %|j8#09
failed during earthquakes and that few lives have been lost (except in the case of tailings dam failures) may give B <ue}t
the impression that well-designed dams are safe against earthquakes. We need to re-evaluate the seismic safety ` Tei
of existing dams based on current state-of-the-art practice and rehabilitate existing dams if necessary. `"o{MaFA
Additionally, there are a large number of smaller dams, especially earth structures, which were built for eV~"T2!Sb
irrigation or water supply by organisations or villagers with little experience in dam construction. Earthquake virt[5 w
effects on these dams have rarely been considered
