Dams and its affect on environment

What is a Dam?

A dam is an artificial barrier usually constructed across a stream channel to

impound water. Timber, rock, concrete, earth, steel or a combination of these
materials may be used to build the dam. Dams must have spillway systems to
safely convey normal stream and flood flows over, around, or through the
dam. Spillways are commonly constructed of non-erosive materials such as
concrete. Dams should also have a drain or other water-withdrawal facility for
control the pool or lake level and to lower or drain the lake for normal
maintenance and emergency purposes.

Following are the impacts of dam on environment

By the end of the 20th century, the dam industry had choked more than half of
the earth's major rivers with more than 50,000 large dams. The consequences
of this massive engineering program have been devastating. The world's large
dams have wiped out species; flooded huge areas of wetlands, forests and
farmlands; and displaced tens of millions of people.

Hemlock Dam is located on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and was built
in 1935 to store irrigation water for the Wind River Nursery, which closed in
1997, leaving the dam with no purpose and a growing list of problems. The
dam has become increasingly problematic over the past 70 years, not just
because of its inadequate fish passage system but also because of the high
temperatures the dam creates in the slack water of its reservoir --
temperatures that can be fatal to the threatened wild steelhead that make it
past the dam to areas where the fish historically thrived.

(a) Creation of a reservoir

The damming of a river creates a reservoir upstream from the dam. The
reservoir waters spill out into the surrounding environments, flooding the
natural habitats that existed before the dam’s construction. According to
recent studies, reservoirs contribute to greenhouse gas emissions as well.
The initial filling of a reservoir floods the existing plant material, leading to the
death and decomposition of the carbon-rich plants and trees. The rotting
organic matter releases large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. The
decaying plant matter itself settles to the non-oxygenated bottom of the
stagnant reservoir, and the decomposition—unmitigated by a flow pattern that
would oxygenate the water—produces and eventually releases dissolved
methane.

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(b)Fragmentation of river ecosystems

A dam also acts as a barrier between the upstream and downstream habitat
of migratory river animals, such as chinook and steelhead salmon in the USA
and Atlantic salmon in Europe. Dams block their migration upstream
to spawn, threatening to decrease reproduction numbers and reduce the
species population. Fish sometimes have difficulty migrating downstream
through a dam, meaning that downstream populations are often reduced
unless, the fish are able to swim safely through the dams’ spillways

(c) Sedimentation behind the dam

Rivers carry four different types of sediment down their riverbeds, allowing for
the formation of riverbanks, river deltas, alluvial fans, braided rivers, oxbow
lakes, levees and coastal shores. The construction of a dam blocks the flow of
sediment downstream, leading to downstream erosion of these Sedimentary
depositional environment depositional environments, and increased sediment
build-up in the reservoir.

(d)Riverline and coastal erosion

As all dams result in reduced sediment load downstream, a dammed river is

said to be “hungry” for sediment. Because the rate of deposition of sediment
is greatly reduced since there is less to deposit but the rate of erosion remains
nearly constant, the water flow eats away at the river shores and riverbed,
threatening shoreline ecosystems, deepening the riverbed, and narrowing the
river over time. This leads to a compromised water table, reduced water
levels, homogenization of the river flow and thus reduced ecosystem
variability, reduced support for wildlife, and reduced amount of sediment
reaching coastal plains and deltas.

(e) Impacts on fish

Few fish are adapted to both lotic and lentic habitats. Consequently, the
transformation of a river to a reservoir often results in the extirpation of resident
riverine species. Downstream of dams, marked changes in fish populations occur as
a consequence of blockage of migration routes, disconnection of the river and
floodplain and changes in flow regime, physiochemical lconditions (e.g. temperature,
turbidity and dissolved oxygen), primary production and channel morphology. These
changes may benefit some species but they generally have an adverse effect on the
majority of native species. The 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals includes
617 freshwater fishes (i.e. about6% of the known number of freshwater species).
Other researchers have speculated that globally between 20% and 35% of all
freshwater fish are threatened (Staissny 1996). Although the loss of species is not
solely a consequence of dams, they are one of the principal factors. It is estimated
that half the fish stocks endemic to the Pacific coast of the USA have been lost in the
past century to a large extent because of dam construction.

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(f)Water temperature

The water of a reservoir is usually warmer in the winter and cooler in the
summer than it would be without a dam. As this water flows into its river, the
altered temperature also affects the temperature of the river in Temperature
Change in Klamath. This impacts the plant and animal life present in both the
reservoir and the river, often creating environments that are unnatural to the
endemic species.

(g)Effects on Humans

While dams are helpful to humans, they can also be harmful as well. One con
of dams is the fact that the artificial lakes created by dams become breeding
grounds for disease. This holds true especially in tropical areas where
mosquitoes (Malaria) and snails can take advantage of this slow flowing
water. Another disadvantage of dams to humans is that if built close enough
to their homes, relocation is imminent. This is the case of the Three Gorges
dam that is being built in China. The Three Gorges dam will take over a large
amount of land forcing over a million people to relocate.

(h)Effects on the Earth Itself

Dams have been found to alter the climate of the earth. This is due to the fact
that dams generate methane gas, a greenhouse gas. Methane is emitted from
reservoirs that are stratified and where the bottom layers are anoxic, leading
to degradation of biomass through anaerobic processes. Climate Change and
Dams: An Analysis of the Linkages Between the UNFCCC Legal Regime and
Dams. As a result of the climate alterations the following is a list of possible
effects:

Dams look beautiful if correctly built but they can mess up the environment
Rise in sea level (could flood lower elevation areas)Shift of climatic zones to
the poles .Unmanaged ecosystems may face new climate based stresses.
Effect on water resources as precipitation and evaporation may change

Another effect that dams have on the earth is affecting the rotation of
the earth. Each of the dams in the world hold a reservoir of water that
contains at least 2.4 cubic miles of water that weigh around 10 billion metric
tons. The result of this has increased the Earth's spin because more water
has been relocated closer to the Earth's axis. Currently it is presumed that the
acceleration of the Earth's rotation has no ill effect on the global environment
or people but it will still be kept in consideration for long-term changes in
global motion.

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(i)Impacts on chemistry

Water storage in reservoirs induces physical, chemical and biological

changes, all of which affect water chemistry. Consequently the water
discharged often has a very different composition to that of inflowing rivers.
Nutrients, particularly phosphorous, are released biologically and leached
from flooded vegetation and soil. Oxygen demand and nutrient levels
generally decrease as the organic matter decays. Some reservoirs require
many years for the development of stable water-quality regimes. After
maturation reservoirs can, like natural lakes, act as nutrient sinks. For
example, in comparison to the inflows, mean concentrations of
orthophosphate in the outflows from the Callahan Reservoir, Missouri, USA,
were reduced by 50% (Schreiber and Rausch 1979). Eutrophication of
reservoirs may occur as a consequence of large influxes of organic material
and nutrients, often arising as a consequence of anthropogenic activity in the
catchment (Chapman 1996). Hence catchment management has a key role to
play in sustaining reservoir water quality. The quality of water released from a
reservoir is determined by the elevation of the outflow structure(s). Water
released from near the surface is generally well-oxygenated, warm, nutrient-
depleted water. In contrast, water released from near the bottom is often cold,
oxygen-depleted, nutrient-rich water that may be high in hydrogen sulphide,
iron andmanganese. Bacterial decomposition of material in reservoirs can
transform inorganic mercury into methylmercury, a toxin of the central nervous
system. Bioaccumulation results in levels of methylmercury in the tissues of
fish at the top of the food-chain several times higher than insmall organisms at
the bottom of the food-chain (Bodaly et al. 1984). This can have serious
implications for people that depend on fish for a large proportion of their diet.
For example, mercury levels in hair samples of Cree Indians in the James Bay
region of Quebec in Canada, were found to be above the World Health
Organizations recommended upper limit(i.e., 6 ppm by weight) as a
consequence of eating fish from reservoirs (Dumont 1995).

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 Table of contents

1.Definition of dam…………………………………………………….………1

2 Impact of dam on

(a) Creation of a reservoir……………………………………………….1

(b) Fragmentation of river ecosystem…………………………………2

(c) Sedimentation behind the dam…………………………………….2

(d) Riverline and coastal erosion……………………………………….2

(e) Water temperature…………………………………………………….2

(f) Effects on Humans……………………………………………….……3

(g) Effects on the Earth Itself…………………………………….……..3

(i)Impacts on chemistry …………………………………………………4

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 File of SBE

Seminar on Business Environment

Topic :Dams and its affects on

environment

Submitted To: Ms.Monika Gupta

Submitted By:varinder kaur
Roll No:12

TCG

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School of Business,
Banur