Die Talsperren Österreichs

As in many places, the number of dams in Austria has significantly increased over the past few decades. A country like Austria, where hydropower and flood protection play such an important role, requires a comprehensive statistical representation of this technical specialty from time to time. The Dam Commission at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, prompted by the suggestions of the managing director, Ministerial Councilor Dr. Otto Lanser, has long been engaged with the statistics of Austrian dams. With the enactment of the Water Rights Amendment in 1959, which established stricter water supervision and tighter monitoring of dams, the statistical recording of these structures has become an urgent necessity. Prof. Dr. Hermann Grengg has now taken on the laborious task, at the request of the Dam Commission, of compiling all essential technical details of Austrian dams and processing them into a comprehensive statistic complete with plans and images. The key figures and terms presented go well beyond what has been customary in other compilations of this kind; the statistics not only provide an almost exhaustive picture of the water management and energy economic significance of the individual dams but also characterize their static properties and stresses. Finally, the technical-historical introductions that precede the actual statistics are likely to attract the attention of many colleagues in the field of hydraulic engineering. Both gentlemen, their offices, and their staff deserve the public's gratitude for this work.