> imply opening the gates and releasing all the water would that be step 1 perhaps? without much thinking about it, I would expect that the shape of the water

> imply opening the gates and releasing all the water would that be step 1 perhaps? without much thinking about it, I would expect that the shape of the waterway structure may not really match a natural water course at all. For example, quite a lot of the release mechanisms would be at the top third of the dam wall, etc. Probably very specific to each dam?