3.6 FEMA Seismic Safety

These guidelines provide a basic framework for the earthquake design and evaluation of dams. The general philosophy and principles for each part of the framework are described in sufficient detail to achieve a reasonable degree of uniformity in application among the Federal agencies involved in the planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and regulation of dams.
The guidelines deal only with the general concepts and leave the decisions on specific criteria and procedures for accomplishing this work up to each agency. Because these guidelines generally reflect current practices, it will be necessary to make periodic revisions, additions, and deletions to incorporate state-of-the-practice earthquake engineering.

This document contains general guidelines for specifying design earthquake loadings (for design or safety evaluation) and performing seismic analyses for the design of new dams (for evaluating the safety of existing dams or modifying existing dams). The guidelines are presented in four parts:

- Selection of design or safety evaluation earthquakes
- Characterization of ground motions
- Seismic analyses of the dams and foundations
- Evaluation of structural adequacy for earthquake loading

Sources: FEMA 65 Federal Guidelines for Dam Safety - Earthquake Analyses and Design of Dams