NZSOLD 2025 CONFERENCE

Call for abstracts

Image ©Manesh Malla

Closing date of abstract submission

FRIDAY 04 APRIL 2025

We invite you to submit an abstract for an oral, quick fire or poster presentation to share your research, practice knowledge and experiences and be part of the conference programme. 

Presentation types

  • Oral presentations will be allocated a 20 minute timeslot.
    All accepted abstracts are required to submit a full paper for oral presentation.

  • A quick fire presentation is a fast paced concise and focused presentation designed to deliver key points within a short time limit (5 minutes).
    All accepted abstracts require a shorter technical note (3 to 4 pages) for Quick Fire presentation.

  • Poster presentation guidelines will be provided at time of acceptance. There will be dedicated poster viewing sessions during the conference.

Submission guidelines

Please allow at least 15 minutes to complete the online profile and submission process. 

You will be required to have: 

  • Contact details of lead (corresponding) contact - All communications and correspondence regarding this abstract submission will be sent to the lead contact.

  • Abstract written in the correct format (see below)

  • All author(s) affiliations (organisation, city, region, country) 

Format for abstracts

All abstract submissions must be: 

  • Microsoft Word document 

  • Arial, 12 point

  • Maximum of 400 words

  • Single spacing without justified margins

All accepted abstracts, are required to:

  • submit a full paper for oral presentation,

  • shorter technical note (3 to 4 pages) for rapid fire presentation,

  • and poster only for poster presentation.

Sub Themes

Our conference theme is Building on the past, to deliver the future. We have sub-themes that we are looking for presentations in. Those sub-themes are (click on the arrow to find more details):

    • Strategies for managing extreme flood events.

    • Adaptation strategies to manage climate change impacts on dam infrastructure.

    • Advances in hydrological methods.

    • Stopbanks and levees fit for the future.

    • The integration of mātauranga Māori and indigenous knowledge.

    • Balancing the costs, benefits, and unknowns.

    • Case studies on new and emerging flood hazard practices.

    • Instrumentation, surveillance, and monitoring.

    • State of the art and new technologies.

    • Examine state-of-art technologies for dam monitoring, including IoT, remote sensing, and AI-driven predictive maintenance.

    • Scanning methods, survey methods.

    • Re-instrumentation of existing dams.

    • Aligning monitoring and surveillance to Potential Failure Modes.

    • Dam Safety Critical Systems (DSCS) – Failure Modes, dam safety incidents, reliability assessment, appropriate inspection test and maintenance regimes.

    • DSCS Inspection, Test, and Maintenance regimes.

    • Tailings and waste containment facilities.

    • Methods and technologies to minimize the carbon footprint of our new and existing dams.

    • Highlight approaches for designing, upgrading and operating dams with low-carbon technologies, materials, and sustainable practices.

    • Whanaungatanga: collective responsibility.

    • Methodologies to account for the carbon emissions from dam operations, dam construction, dam upgrade and rehabilitation.

    • Multipurpose renewables.

    • Understanding risk: hazards, risk assessments, reducing risks, risk tolerance:

      • Philosophical, theoretical, and practical implementation of risk assessment methodologies, risk tolerance, and strategies for mitigating risks in dam engineering.

      • Communicating dam safety risk & hazard vs risk, to engineers, owners (management & boards), to authorities, and public (groups and generally).

    • Modernising ageing dam infrastructure.

    • Addressing safety concerns.

    • Incorporating new design principles for enhanced performance.

    • Lifecycle assessments and considerations.

    • Explore the importance of engineering judgement in making complex decisions, balancing technical, environmental, and societal factors.

    • Uses of qualitative, quantitative and semi qualitative risk assessment to inform engineering judgement.

    • Dams as a System – examples of the application of the thinking to the design, operation and management of new and existing dams.

    • Challenges, threats and opportunities.

    • Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Emerging Digital Technologies (EDT).

    • Creating effective teams (technical, management, governance).

    • Integration of te ao Māori, mātauranga Māori, and indigenous knowledge in processes and governance.

    • Organisational maturity and effective governance.

    • Emergency management:

      - EM response planning, training, exercises.

      - Information – how to develop, keep, share.

      - Working with and informing authorities, public, communities.

      - Different approaches for different hazards.

    • Dam safety regulation:

      - Lessons from introduction of regulation in Australia and NZ.

      - Benefits and potential issues..

    • Technical advances, guidance and standards.

    • Dam safety guidance & standards.

    • Successful implementation of international practices.

    • Defining ‘best practice’.

    • Direction and trends emerging from ICOLD and the ICOLD Technical Committees.

    • Identifying and learning from incidents and failures (design, construction, operation, technical, HSE, other).

    • Lessons in staffing, organisational, and business practices.

    • Learning from past failures in inclusion and leadership.

    • Recent lessons in financing, contract, and programme management.

Timeframes

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Friday 04 April 2025

Need help? If you are having trouble submitting your abstract, then please contact us

Criteria for evaluating abstracts

All abstracts are subject to review by the Organising Committee. In evaluating the abstract the reviewers will be assessed against the following:

1. Relevance to conference theme and programme

The abstract relates to the conference theme and demonstrates a strong connection to broader strategic or professional contexts.

2. Interest to dams professionals

The topic is relevant and of significant interest to dams professionals, with clear benefits for attendees.

3. Focus and specificity

The abstract addresses a specific, relevant question, issue, or idea with clarity and precision.

4. Methodology and Expertise

The abstract demonstrates strong expertise and a well-defined methodology, including research, case studies, or other investigative steps.

5. Analysis and Conclusions

The abstract provides clear, insightful conclusions and implications, with a strong understanding of the topic.

6. Learning Outcomes

The abstract clearly outlines specific learning outcomes or provides specific guidance, frameworks, concepts, or considerations for the audience.

Conditions of submission

  • Late submissions will not be accepted.

  • A condition of acceptance is that at least one author presents at the conference. 

  • Presenters must register to attend for at least a day of the conference. They are responsible for their own travel, accommodation and registration expenses. Similarly, no speaker fee is paid to authors or presenters.

  • It is the responsibility of the submitting author to ensure the accuracy of the content, spelling, grammar and formatting of the abstract, as an accepted abstract will be published as it is submitted. 

  • The Organising Committee will review all abstracts and may contact authors as part of the review process.

  • By submitting an abstract you also grant NZSOLD permission to publish the the accepted abstract and subsequent paper in the Conference proceedings in hard copy and/or electronic format, Conference App and on NZSOLD website.

  • All accepted abstracts, are required to submit a full paper.

First time presenters

Have you not submitted an abstract before? Not sure of the process? We strongly encourage those who haven’t submitted an abstract to get involved and give it a go! 

    • Firstly, print and read all the information on this website page. It’s important to note the close of submission date.

    • Next you need to write your abstract, following the format required. It’s often easier to download the example and type over this. A clear and concise title is a good start to your abstract.

    • When writing your abstract, it’s important to remember, that whoever reads it, will know nothing about you, or the topic you are writing on, so use simple easy language to convey what you will present on.

    • Often, it’s best to write your abstract and then ask either colleagues, mentors or family members to read it and provide feedback.

    • Once you are happy with the written abstract, it’s time to go online and submit the abstract. This is a simple online process, which you will be required to upload the abstract. At the conclusion of this process, you should receive a confirmation email.

    • You will be required to provide a short biography during the online submission process, if you don’t have one available, write one, prior to starting the online submission process. If you are accepted the biography is used by the facilitator on the day you are presenting to correctly introduce you.

    • The Organising Committee will review all abstracts and you will be notified by email if your abstract has been accepted or declined.

    • Please do not be dishearten if you are not accepted, less than 50% of abstracts are accepted.

    • If you are accepted, congratulations! Now the next part begins! Preparing for the presentation. For this, practice does make perfect. You will receive tips on presenting, as part of the acceptance letter. Take the time to read these tips and learn how to improve your presenting style and delivery (including the preparation of slides).

    • Register for the conference, as part of the submission, you agree to register and pay for at least one day of the conference.

    • Once you arrive at the conference, go to the Speaker Preparation room with your slides on a USB stick. In the Speaker Preparation room, there will be an audio-visual technician who will load your presentation onto their computer, and run the slides, to ensure there are no hiccups. Once confirmed, they will ensure your presentation is loaded onto the computer. If there are any audio-visual issues on the day, the technician will be available to sort it out.

    • On the day you are presenting, go and find the room that you are presenting in, have a look at the space. Be in the room 15 minutes prior to presenting (this will usually be in a catering break) to meet the facilitator, confirm where you will be seated, how they will introduce you, have a go with the remote mouse etc.

    • Most importantly – enjoy yourself. People will be interested in what you have to say so take a deep breath, smile, keep calm, talk clearly and slowly and enjoy your presenting time.

  • Any queries, please do not hesitate to email: nzsold@composition.co.nz

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