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Dams and Reservoirs

Overview of Dams and Reservoirs


Glen Canyon Dam

Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River in Arizona.

Bruce Heinemann/Getty Images
Updated February 14, 2014

Another term often used when discussing dams is reservoir. A reservoir is a man-made lake that is primarily used for storing water. They can also be defined as the specific bodies of water formed by the construction of a dam. For example, the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in California’s Yosemite National Park is the body of water created and held back by the O’Shaughnessy Dam.

Types of Dams

Today, there are several different types of dams and the man-made ones are classified by their size and structure. Typically a large dam is classified as being higher than 50-65 feet (15-20 meters) while major dams are those over 492-820 feet (150-250 meters).





Types of Reservoirs and Construction

Like dams, there are different types of reservoirs as well but they are classified based on their use. The three types are called: a valley dammed reservoir, a bank-side reservoir, and a service reservoir. Bank-side reservoirs are those formed when water is taken from an existing stream or river and stored in a nearby reservoir. Service reservoirs are mainly constructed to store water for later use. They often appear as water towers and other elevated structures.

The first and usually largest type of reservoir is called a valley dammed reservoir. These are reservoirs that are located in narrow valley areas where tremendous amounts of water can be held in by the valley’s sides and a dam. The best location for a dam in these types of reservoirs is where it can be built into the valley wall most effectively to form a water tight seal.


Dam Controversy

In addition to the high cost of construction and river diversion, dams and reservoirs are often controversial projects because of their social and environmental impacts. Dams themselves affect many different ecological components of rivers such as fish migrations, erosion, changes in water temperature and therefore changes in oxygen levels, creating inhospitable environments for many species.

In addition, the creation of a reservoir requires the flooding of large areas of land, at the expense of the natural environment and sometimes villages, towns and small cities. The construction of China’s Three Gorges Dam, for example, required the relocation of over one million people and flooded many different archaeological and cultural sites.

Main Uses of Dams and Reservoirs

Despite their controversy, dams and reservoirs serve a number of different functions but one of the largest is to maintain an area’s water supply. Many of the world’s largest urban areas are supplied with water from rivers that are blocked via dams. San Francisco, California for example, gets the majority of its water supply from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir via the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct running from Yosemite to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Another major use of dams is power generation as hydroelectric power is one of the world’s major sources of electricity. Hydropower is generated when the potential energy of the water on the dam drives a water turbine which in then turns a generator and creates electricity. To best make use of the water’s power, a common type of hydroelectric dam uses reservoirs with different levels to adjust the amount of energy generated as it is needed. When demand is low for instance, water is held in an upper reservoir and as demand increases, the water is released into a lower reservoir where it spins a turbine.


To learn more about dams and reservoirs visit PBS's Dams Site.

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