4 ms·

I think dams are also used to control the water flow and prevent floods, how to solve that instead?

• samus 3y ago
  It's a give and take. Historically, the danger from flooding actually increased because the floodplains next to the riverside were mostly eliminated. They would provide flexibility for the river to meander and to expand in times of heavy rain and would have to be restored as part of a dam removal. They also provide biodiversity and help keep the river water clean. Dams are also a hazard when there is a lot of rain because you eventually have to open it or risk failure. As the dam gets older it tends to silt up and its integrity becomes less trustworthy, even less water fits in. This requires necessitating expensive maintenance to remedy. Getting rid of it might be cheaper in the long run.
• ender341341 3y ago
  Can't speak for the ones in this article but they're doing similar in the pacific northwest and many of the dams where built to locally control flooding, but other newer dams further upstream ended up handling the flood prevention better over what were previously multiple dams so there's lots of old dams that have effectively sat unused & blocking fish & wildlife on the river while also providing no benefit.
• bell-cot 3y ago
  Every dam is different...but if a dam has a small reservoir capacity (perhaps partly due to lack of maintenance - so what looks like water behind the dam is mostly accumulated silt), a narrow range of control (the water level is not much different between "flood gates fully closed" and "flood gates fully open", local-only manual controls (vs. pushing a button at National Flood Control HQ), and other issues - then it's actually of little use for those.