Four years of research is culminating in findings that can save thousands of lives
On Tuesday, September 19, at the Dam Safety Conference of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials in Palm Springs, CA, Dr. Hotchkiss' national inventory of low-head dams will be officially unveiled.
The product is the result of four years of work that Dr. Hotchkiss initiated in late 2019. Five organizations are represented in his voluntary workforce, and an untold number of hours has been devoted to this project. His main co-leaders come from academia and industry.
The purpose of the inventory is to reduce drowning fatalities at low-head dams, where approximately 1,000 people have drowned in the last several decades – many more than had died as a result of larger dam failures in the same period of time.
Throughout this effort Dr. Hotchkiss has published 3 papers on research-related aspects of this work and will be submitting a proposal based on this work for further research next month.
