Symposium on dam failures — Panel discussion

Abstract

In summing up, the first thing I want to remark on is the importance of failures. We have many theories to explain how and why things happen but a theory is just a theory and a fact is a fact. When we have a failure we're faced with a very powerful fact that we have to deal with. Pierre Londe said yesterday that nature always gives us a warning of failures but we may have to listen very closely to hear the warning. When a failure occurs we'd have to be deaf not to hear the lesson. And that's the value of failures -- that each contains some lesson, possibly not a new lesson, but if it's an old lesson it is one that we haven't learned well enough.

Additional details