Introduction
Rainfall is the most variable component of the hydrological cycle. Oftentimes, rainfall does not occur when it or where it is needed. The construction of a dam creates a reservoir where water can be stored during wet periods and saved until it is needed during dry spells.
If reservoirs are connected to form a network, they can be used to overcome some of the problems caused by the spatial variability of rainfall.
The first dams were constructed some 5,000 years ago, on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Mesopotamia and on the Nile in Egypt. The pace of dam construction was, however, not very fast. According to the International Committee on Large Dams (ICOLD), there were less than 500 dam at the end of the nineteenth century. Of them less than 10 could be classified as large dams. Postel (1993) claims that it was not until two centuries ago that the science of irrigation, grounded in the principles of hydraulics, took root. In 1800, an estimated eight million hectares, an...
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Hjorth, P. (2012). Large Dams and Environment. In: Bengtsson, L., Herschy, R.W., Fairbridge, R.W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Lakes and Reservoirs. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4410-6_29
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