This book contains the proceedings of the 19th Biennial Conference of the British Dam Society, Dams – Benefits or Disbenefits; Assets or Liabilities?

Work to reservoirs and dams today covers far more than engineering, and the papers in this book show how engineers integrate their work with other disciplines to minimise the adverse impacts of schemes that are essential to ensure the safety of the public, while maximising other potential benefits to society.

Anyone with a professional interest in dams and reservoirs, such as dam owners, designers, or constructors, will find papers of direct relevance to them.

In addition to papers on dam construction and modifications, there are papers on the discontinuance of existing reservoirs, with the many engineering and environmental factors that have to be taken into account. The need to provide and exercise drawdown capability, while mitigating any adverse environmental impacts, is another area of increasing interest that is covered by several papers.

Dr Cara Courage is a placemaking academic and arts consultant, writer/commentator, curator and project manager. She is author of Arts in Place: The Arts, the Urban and Social Practice, and works as an Adjunct at University of Virginia, researching and developing creative placemaking metrics and as a strategist at Futurecity, whilst running her own placemaking projects. She has been listening to The Archers for around 15 years and grew up with the programme on her grandmother's farm on Exmoor. She talks about the pleasure and pain of her Archers fandom in a talk My BDSM relationship with The Archers.