Morán, R., authorColorado State University. Department of Engineering, publisher2017-02-162017-02-162016-0997818891432791889143278http://hdl.handle.net/10217/179790http://dx.doi.org/10.25675/10217/179790Presented at the Protections 2016: 2nd international seminar on dam protection against overtopping: concrete dams, embankment dams, levees, tailings dams held on 7th-9th September, 2016, at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. The increasing demand for dam and levee safety and flood protection has motivated new research and advancements and a greater need for cost-effective measures in overtopping protection as a solution for overtopping concerns at levees and dams. This seminar will bring together leading experts from practice, research, development, and implementation for two days of knowledge exchange followed by a technical tour of the Colorado State University Hydraulic Laboratory with overtopping flume and wave simulator. This seminar will focus on: Critical issues related to levees and dams; New developments and advanced tools; Overtopping protection systems; System design and performance; Applications and innovative solutions; Case histories of overtopping events; Physical modeling techniques and recent studies; and Numerical modeling methods.Includes bibliographical references.The article aims to be an introduction to the history of the wedge-shaped blocks technology. As it is well known, the WSBs protection system was born in the middle of 20th century in the former Soviet Union. Even though its basis of operation remains, relevant studies have been yielded in order to apply this kind of protection in real cases. Besides, direct application in several case studies has shed some light on practical difficulties and the need of new technical criteria to overcome them. Thus, applied research has been developed in countries such United Kingdom, USA, Portugal, and Spain, among others. The article consists of three parts. It commences with a brief summary of some relevant research and development studies. Afterwards, a description group of case studies of stepped block spillways is included. Finally, the article ends with a short compilation of the state of the art of the current design criteria.born digitalproceedings (reports)engwedge blockoverlappingembankmentovertoppingprotectionTextThis presentation is open access and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).