Tropical residual soils as dam foundation and fill material

Dam construction across the world has recently acquired an accelerated pace as needs for water supply and renewable energy sources have increased in many countries. Many of these countries are located in areas where tropical residual soils are abundant.

The main difficulty in dealing with these soils for engineering purposes is that their characteristics are very different from those of transported soils.

The purpose of this bulletin is to illustrate how these materials have been accepted and used in dam projects without imposing selection of better known materials that could jeopardize the economic viability of a project.