Resilience in our dams, industry and communities – reflections on the ANCOLD 2026 conference

From 26 to 28 October 2026, the dams industry gathered in Nipaluna Hobart, Lutruwita Tasmania (the birthplace and home base of Entura) to exchange insights, challenge thinking and strengthen connections across the Bass Strait and beyond. Here Entura senior civil engineer Sammy Gibbs reflects on the conference …

The technical sessions started with a moving Welcome to Country by Denni, a proud Pakana woman who insightfully reminded us that ‘water is life’ and the reason for our gathering. This set the scene for thinking about resilience in our dams as well as in our people and communities.

Resilience in our dams

The dams industry is facing complex challenges including ageing infrastructure, climate change impacts, community expectations, technological change, cost constraints and major global geopolitical tensions, which makes conferences like ANCOLD so important for sharing knowledge and ideas. Several presentations delved into innovative technical advances and/or practices that aim to protect assets. This included Colin Terry, who presented on lessons learnt when adapting standard designs to a new spillway at TasWater’s Pet Dam, a paper I co-authored, and how we can lean on prior knowledge to smartly allocate effort where budgets are tight and project timelines are accelerated.

It was also evident that resilience will look different from dam to dam. Richard Herweynen touched on this in his thought-provoking paper about dam emergency dewatering outlets. He outlined some instances where it is not practical or safe to construct and/or maintain these outlets, and recommended a risk framework to help asset owners assess the need and benefit to make better decisions.

Resilience in our industry experts

Sally Fracalossi began her presentation by asking, ‘What is your most crucial asset?’ and reminded us of the core importance of people. The paper (which was runner-up for the Emerging Professionals Best Paper Award) highlighted the value of embedding a training framework within dam safety management programs to strengthen long-term safety outcomes and build and sustain a skilled professional workforce over time.

The importance of looking after our own and our colleagues’ wellbeing was reinforced by Mitch McPherson from mental health organisation Speak up! Stay ChatTY. I feel privileged to work in an organisation that makes it possible to achieve a genuine work-life balance through flexible working arrangements, which in turn helps promote wellbeing, resilience and career longevity.

Protecting ourselves and our assets in the changing world of AI was a recurrent theme. Navigating the role of AI in our sector is going to be a challenging journey, while we also try to build and preserve our critical thinking skills and develop the ‘engineering judgement’ that AI can’t replicate (at least not yet).

Resilience in our communities

Conversations about resilience in dam assets are also conversations about communities. The perspective of community safety drives how we address dam risks and develop risk mitigation solutions. Emergency preparedness builds resilience and it’s a vital part of our role as dam engineers. Michael Aboud’s presentation reinforced the criticality of the role of the dam engineer and how this role doesn’t conclude when an emergency response commences. Ongoing surveillance and monitoring helps identify the progression of failure modes and provides early indicators of emerging ones, supporting timely intervention and giving emergency managers better information to protect downstream communities.

ANCOLD 2026 was an excellent opportunity to collaborate with our peers and industry leaders on the issues facing our industry, as well as a great platform to showcase Entura and Nipaluna Hobart. If you’d like to find out more about the conference, take a look at our LinkedIn and Facebook feeds, where you’ll see me chatting with Entura colleagues about what we presented, what we heard, and what we’re excited about.

You can find our abstracts here, and read more about our team’s thoughts on issues across the dam life cycle: from inception through development, first filling, operation, upgrades and decommissioning, and the crucial element throughout: training.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sammy Gibbs is a civil engineer with 8 years of consulting experience and joined Entura’s Dams and Geotech Team in May 2021. Sammy has a diverse background in dam and water engineering and works on a range of projects including consequence category assessments, hydrology studies, hydraulic design, risk assessments and dam design projects.

30 October, 2026