Bureau of Reclamation; Safety, Security and Law Enforcement Office; Dam Safety Office; Building Seismic Safety Program

Reclamation's Building Seismic Safety Program

Program Process-Step 4 - Risk Analysis Process

The BSSP completes a risk analysis for all buildings found in the Seismic Evaluation Process (Step 3) to be seismically deficient. The automated risk analysis produces an annualized loss-of-life (ALOL) risk estimate for the deficient building. This estimated level of risk is used to determine if a risk reduction project is warranted. If a risk reduction project is warranted, the priority of that project relative to all other risk reduction projects is established using the ALOL estimate.

Reclamation's Guidelines for Achieving Public Protection in Dam Safety Decision Making, April 4, 1997, establishes an ALOL of 1×10¯³ as the level of risk at which long-term risk reduction actions may be warranted, with the justification increasing as the level of risk increases. For details on the BSSP risk-based recommendations:

Definition and Uses of Estimated Seismic Risk
Date Created or Revised Here
Adobe Acrobat - 12 KB .pdf File

The Rehabilitation Action Plan Process (Step 6) details the risk reduction option that has been proposed by the BSSP and selected by the client. The costs of risk reduction are reimbursable, in a manner consistent with the current repayment agreement for the particular building, and BSSP Portfolio Funding can be utilized.

Note: Further information regarding the BSSP Portfolio Funding is located on the "Program Process"
page, which can always be found via the links near the top of the page or in the left-hand column.