Water Dams

From Ancient to Present Times and into the Future

authored by

Andreas N. Angelakis, Alper Baba, Mohammad Valipour, Jörg Dietrich, Elahe Fallah-Mehdipour, Jens Krasilnikoff, Esra Bilgic, Cees Passchier, Vasileios A. Tzanakakis, Rohitashw Kumar, Zhang Min, Nicholas Dercas, Abdelkader T. Ahmed

Abstract

Since ancient times, dams have been built to store water, control rivers, and irrigate agricultural land to meet human needs. By the end of the 19th century, hydroelectric power stations arose and extended the purposes of dams. Today, dams can be seen as part of the renewable energy supply infrastructure. The word dam comes from French and is defined in dictionaries using words like strange, dike, and obstacle. In other words, a dam is a structure that stores water and directs it to the desired location, with a dam being built in front of river valleys. Dams built on rivers serve various purposes such as the supply of drinking water, agricultural irrigation, flood control, the supply of industrial water, power generation, recreation, the movement control of solids, and fisheries. Dams can also be built in a catchment area to capture and store the rainwater in arid and semi-arid areas. Dams can be built from concrete or natural materials such as earth and rock. There are various types of dams: embankment dams (earth-fill dams, rock-fill dams, and rock-fill dams with concrete faces) and rigid dams (gravity dams, rolled compacted concrete dams, arch dams, and buttress dams). A gravity dam is a straight wall of stone masonry or earthen material that can withstand the full force of the water pressure. In other words, the pressure of the water transfers the vertical compressive forces and horizontal shear forces to the foundations beneath the dam. The strength of a gravity dam ultimately depends on its weight and the strength of its foundations. Most dams built in ancient times were constructed as gravity dams. An arch dam, on the other hand, has a convex curved surface that faces the water. The forces generated by the water pressure are transferred to the sides of the structure by horizontal lines. The horizontal, normal, and shear forces resist the weight at the edges. When viewed in a horizontal section, an arch dam has a curved shape. This type of dam can also resist water pressure due to its particular shape that allows the transfer of the forces generated by the stored water to the rock foundations. This article takes a detailed look at hydraulic engineering in dams over the millennia. Lessons should be learned from the successful and unsuccessful applications and operations of dams. Water resource managers, policymakers, and stakeholders can use these lessons to achieve sustainable development goals in times of climate change and water crisis.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Hydrology and Water Resources Management

External Organisation(s)

Hubei University
National Agricultural Research Foundation
İzmir Institute of Technology
Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU)
Aarhus University
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Technological Educational Institute of Crete (TEI CRETE)
Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir
Agricultural University of Athens
Islamic University of Madinah

Type

Review article

Journal

Water (Switzerland)

Volume

16

ISSN

2073-4441

Publication date

01.07.2024

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Biochemistry, Geography, Planning and Development, Aquatic Science, Water Science and Technology

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG 13 - Climate Action

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.3390/w16131889 (Access: Open)