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Sintra Palace, Sintra, Portugal
Context
The expert panel on Dams in a Context of Extreme Events and Climate Change will bring together a diverse group of leading professionals to examine the evolving challenges and opportunities facing dam infrastructure in an era of increasing climatic uncertainty and risk.
As climate change accelerates, we are witnessing more frequent and intense extreme weather events—ranging from prolonged droughts to catastrophic floods—placing immense strain on dam systems worldwide. Dams, which serve as critical components of water management, energy production, and flood control, must now contend with new levels of stress that challenge their long-term functionality and safety. The risk of dam failure, whether due to aging infrastructure, extreme hydrological events, or operational limitations, adds another layer of complexity that requires urgent attention.
Expected discussion will focus on several key themes, including:
The resilience of dams under increasing climate variability and extreme events
Risk assessment and management strategies to prevent dam failures
Advances in monitoring, maintenance, and early warning systems
The socio-economic and environmental impacts of dam failures
Policy, regulatory, and engineering solutions to enhance dam safety and adaptability.
This roundtable intends to provide a valuable platform to share knowledge, experiences, and innovative approaches to ensure that dams remain safe, effective, and resilient in the face of evolving challenges in a rapidly changing world.
Expert Panellists
Teresa Viseu, LNEC, Portugal
(Expert Panel Organiser)
Maria Teresa Viseu is a Principal Researcher at the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering and Head of the Water Resources and Hydraulic Structures Division within the Water and Environmental Department. She is also an Associate Professor at the University of Lisbon. With a PhD in Civil Engineering, her expertise includes hydraulic structures, fluvial hydraulics, hydrology, and water resources.
Maria Teresa Viseu leads research projects on water resources, hydraulic structure behavior, flood and dam risk management, dam-break flood assessment, and emergency planning with studies conducted across Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America. She has authored over 350 publications and co-supervised multiple PhD and MSc theses. She has contributed to projects for organizations such as UNDP, the World Bank, NATO, and the European Commission under several framework programs, as well as initiatives funded by the NSF and the Portuguese FCT.
Michel Lino, ICOLD, France
Michel Lino, graduated in civil engineering from Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, in 1973, cofounded ISL Ingénierie in 1986. With more than 40 years of professional activity dedicated to the engineering of dams and water projects, Michel Lino is now a dam consultant, advisor to various owners and contractors, and a member of several Dam Safety panels of experts. His experience includes large dams, hydroelectric and river facilities in hydraulic and hydropower. Michel Lino is author of more than forty scientific and technical publications in the field of dam design and water projects.
He was awarded by ICOLD in Bali in June 2014, especially for his contribution to the development of Hardfill Dams and is currently Vice-President of ICOLD Technical Committee P on Cemented Material Dams (CMD). He served as Vice President of ICOLD for Europe for the term 2016-2019. He was President of the French Committee on Dams and Reservoirs (CFBR) from January 2017 to June 2022. In June 2022, he was elected President of ICOLD.
Ahmed Chraibi, ICOLD, Morocco
Ahmed F. Chraibi has 48 years of experience in the engineering of dams and underground structures. He has contributed to the design, construction supervision, monitoring, and maintenance of over 130 dams of various sizes and types, in addition to numerous tunnels across diverse geological environments. Currently, he serves on multiple dam safety panels.
He has been appointed as the chair of the Technical Committee TC107 at the International Society of Soils Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) and a TC on tropical residual soils at ICOLD. He served as ICOLD Vice President for Africa from 2015 to 2018 and was selected as General Reporter of Question 102 (Geology & Dams) at the 2018 ICOLD Congress.
Markus Aufleger, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Markus Aufleger serves as a Professor of Hydraulic Engineering at the University of Innsbruck with over 30 years of professional experience in the fields of dam safety, hydropower, and river engineering. His expertise is recognized through active involvement in several prestigious international and national organizations, including the ICOLD Committee on Dam Surveillance, the German National Committee on Large Dams (DTK), where he served as Vice-President, and the Austrian Dam Safety Committee (Staubeckenkommission).
His professional portfolio includes leadership in numerous safety assessments, construction consultancy projects, and technical reviews of dams across Europe, Asia, North Africa and South America. In addition to his practical contributions, Markus Aufleger has a strong research background, focusing on innovative methods for dam monitoring, including distributed fiber optic temperature measurement, hydraulic model testing, sediment management in reservoirs and innovative river engineering methods.
Rafael Machado, Brazilian Civil Defense, Brazil
Civil Engineer with postgraduate specializations in Geographic Information Systems and Environmental Management. Holds a Master’s in BIM Management from Zigurat Institute, Spain. Over 14 years at Brazil’s National Secretariat for Civil Protection and Defense, leading disaster risk management efforts. Experienced in disaster prevention, response, and reconstruction, including managing Brazil’s national risk center. Since 2015, focused on emergency management for dams, handling major disasters like Mariana (2015) and Brumadinho (2019). Contributed to regulatory reviews and authored Brazil’s dam contingency planning manual. Professor of risk management at the Federal University of Bahia. Internationally, serves as project manager for the International Disasters Charter, supporting global disaster response. Participated in global dam safety programs and coordinated Brazil’s humanitarian mission to Turkey in 2023. Recently led technical cooperation with Suriname on dam safety.
Rodrigo Oliveira, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Rodrigo Proença de Oliveira is an Associate Professor of Hydrology and Water Resources at Instituto Superior Técnico (Universidade de Lisboa) and a researcher at CERIS – Civil Engineering Research and Innovation for Sustainability. He holds a Civil Engineering degree from Instituto Superior Técnico and earned his MSc and PhD in Water Resources Planning and Management from Cornell University, USA. His career spans academia, research and extensive private consulting, with projects across Africa, South America, and Europe. He has held roles at Portugal's National Laboratory for Civil Engineering and the Directorate-General for Natural Resources. He is an active member of the Portuguese Scientific Committee for the National Adaptation Strategy and serves as the Secretary General of the Tagus River Basin Council. Additionally, he served on the board of the Portuguese Association of Water Resources, including two years as its President.
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