On the embankment dam

The significance of the embankment dam stems from its importance to mankind in providing one of the cheapest means for storing large volumes of water. Historically this was required for irrigation, but it is also a necessity for hydro-power and supply for industrial and domestic use. The embankment dam was the first type of dam built by man: it is the most numerous type; it is the type most often chosen for a new dam and forms the world's highest dam. It was rivalled by various forms of concrete dam, but developments since the 1930s in geotechnical science, understanding of behaviour through instrumentation and improvement of earth-moving machinery has made it the foremost type of dam throughout the world. Improved methods of stability analysis, utilizing the concept of effective stresses and measured pore pressures, enable safe slopes to be constructed. Weaknesses due to slickensides and/or the effects of failure developing progressively along a potential slip surface clearly must be given due considerat...