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15 In engineering, we always have interacting physical and human factors. Human factors contribute both to Failure and to Safety. ASDSO and other organizations offer training in effective communication techniques specific to emergency situations. Judgment, Decision Making and Selecting a Response When it comes to judgment and decision making during a crisis there can be a lot of opinions on how to address the situation. It’s important to consider all the alternatives, but it’s even more important to identify one decision maker. The opinion of a dam owner may be different than that of an emergency manager, which both may be different from the opinion of a regulatory agency. It’s the decision maker’s responsibility to balance the opinions and expertise in order to make the best decision. The decision maker may need to make quick decisions even when there may be little, no, or ambiguous information. This can place a significant mental stress on the decision maker and even the supporting personnel. Selecting an appropriate response requires developing an understanding of the cause, the various response alternatives and their effectiveness, and their potential implications. This is where pre-planning for emergency response can reduce human-caused mistakes. Reaching out to the appropriate network of individuals with qualified technical experience to help guide the decision makers on the potential alternatives and their effectiveness, as well as the operations staff to provide insight on the feasibility, execution, and implications of the various alternatives is required to make an informed decision. Incident Management Just as there should be a clear line of authority for decision making, there should be an individual assigned to manage the incident on-site. First and foremost, stay calm. Seek advice from trusted experts and make a decision. Maintain some level of flexibility to recognize when a decision is not working and allow a change in course. Use the steps outlined in the EAP as a guide. This is not the time to try and be a hero, understand your limitations. Interact with the incident command center, if established by the emergency management team, and ensure communication protocols are understood. Physical boundaries to the site are important for the safety of the public and also emergency responders. Don’t forget the number one priority is public safety and the safety of the emergency responders. Documentation Document, document, document. This may be one of the last things on your mind but it is very important to document decisions and actions during the incident. Take notes, photographs, draw sketches, and possibly take videos. Once the incident has been resolved the post-emergency documentation begins. A written report, letter, or memorandum should be prepared while the judgments, decisions and actions taken during the incident are still fresh. Provide an accurate account from beginning to the end. The documentation taken during the incident will prove invaluable. Include a detailed section of lessons learned. The better the documentation the better others who may be faced with a similar situation will be prepared. Summary The behavior of dams and other physical systems are subject to the laws of deterministic physical science. Because of human’s interaction with the physical features which they design, construct and operate, there are numerous factors outside the realm of physical science and technical aspects of engineering that affect the behavior of the physical system. Simple mistakes, misoperation, negligence, or oversights can increase the possibility of failure. These slips, lapses and mistakes can and do occur at various phases throughout the life of the dam. Ironically, this type of human inevitability to be fallible can best be counteracted with other human behaviors related to design, construction, organizational, and professional best practices. Human effort is needed to create and maintain order and achieve safety. But human effort sometimes falls short. When the human factors contributing to failure outweigh those contributing to safety, failures can (and likely will) result.