“Common challenges, shared future, better dams” is the title of the event, held in Chengdu, China, from 16th to 23rd May 2025: to date, hydropower lays new challenges to engineers that find new life in the sharing of experiences and knowledge for safer and better dams.

The ICOLD congress, held together with the Annual Meeting, was an opportunity for sharing, enriching and learning, but it was also an opportunity for RSE to contribute to the activities of the ICOLD Technical Committees in which it is involved and to present the latest studies conducted in frame of the Ricerca di Sistema. In the Workshop “Advanced numerical modelling applied to dam engineering”, organized by the ICOLD Technical Committee A (TC-A) “Computational aspects of analysis and design of dams”, of which Antonella Frigerio is Chair and Giorgia Faggiani is Co-Opted member, the activities carried out in April in the frame of the 17th ICOLD Benchmark Workshop held in Sofia on the numerical analysis of dams and an experience of application of artificial intelligence for the diagnosis of aging phenomena of dams were presented.

For RSE’s Sustainable Development and Energy Sources Department, Antonella Frigerio, Deputy Director, who introduced and moderated the event, participated with Giorgia Faggiani who presented the summary of theme A, comparing a selection of the results of the theme provided for the Sofia event. The TC-A meeting was held as well: the new TORS were discussed, how to face the ongoing activities, in particular the finalizing of the two technical bulletins on the capitalization of the Benchmark Workshops organized by the Committee from 1991 to 2019, was defined and the organization of the next Benchmark Worksop was started. In the ICOLD general assembly, the new members proposed by the national committees were approved, including Giorgia Faggiani, who has been yet participating in the TC-A’s activities as an observer for some years.

Finally, in the frame of Question 111 “Earthquake performance and safety of dams” of the congress, the paper “Recent studies on advanced finite element simulation methods for safety assessment of concrete dams” (G. Faggiani, M. Colombo, A. Frigerio,

P. Masarati) was selected for the oral presentation.

RSE also sent a second paper to answer the Question 110 “Safety of dams and levees facing extreme hydrological events”, entitled “Molare tragedy: the secondary dam collapse induced by a heavy rainfall event” (A. Abbate, A. Frigerio). Both the papers are included in the congress proceedings.