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Weather Control Dams (United States Army Corps of Engineers, 2004)

           Dam engineering for weather control can be traced backed to before current era but the engineering behind the dams have changed significantly. In modern day we have more resources and technology that allow us to create and design dams that can almost withstand anything. The United States Army Corps of Engineers have built thousands of weather control dams around the United States and each of their dam builds have changed depending on the landscape and required strength. For big cities the most common type of weather control dam to provide flood control are dry dams. Dry dams are constructed to only have running water through them in case of a flood cause such as rainfall for a long period of time. Most of the time these dams have no water. These dams are engineered in all different size and shapes depending in the capacity and flood control needed in each city. These dams are also built into the ground to keep the water below and protect the ground above it. Gravity dams are another type of dam used for weather control. While dry dams are there for emergencies and preventions. Gravity dams are needed in order for the terrain to be useable. Usually gravity dams are constructed to block off a river or some type of water flow in order to make a part of land useable by unflooding. The gravity dams are engineered not just for the water being controlled but also to account for weather that can flood the land again.  

Dams on the Environment (Mucully Patrick, 2001),(International Journal of Science and Technology, 2008)

With the world moving toward preserving the earth and its environments dams can be helpful and harmful in accomplishing this goal. Hydroelectric dams is a perfect example on how dams can help in improving the environment. Hydroelectric dams are engineered to use a rivers water flow to make clean energy. The clean energy is made by using turbines that spin when the water is flowing from one side of the dam to the other. This clean energy helps preserve the environment by not having to burn fossil fuels or any other type of fuel to make power. While this may look like the solution to make clean energy for the world it has negative impacts on the environment as well. Any type of dam that restricts flow to a river causes harm to the ecosystems in the river which, leads to affecting the environment. That one ecosystems leads to a domino effect that moves on to larger ecosystems. This can become a major problem in different environments that depend on these ecosystems in order to live day to day. Brazil is having to deal with this issue because they are building hydroelectric dams in order to have sustainable power because they have many rivers to provide this water to power the dams. But they are seeing a major change in there wild life such as dying populations of certain species around these hydroelectric dams.

Dam Destruction (Terri Cook,2017)

When a dam is built it is going to be in that location for a long time. Recently dam destruction has been a major thing in the United States. This is due to the evaluation of the benefits to a dam compared to their environmental cost. Dams have been left alone even after they really have no uses because of the money cost to remove dams. It is not an easy process to destroy a dam that has been built to withstand strong forces. Not only are they hard to remove but in some cases dams want to be removed to restore and environment. This means that the dam has to be removed without any pollution to the river or harm to the wild life. This is a difficult task when the river is made from concrete or other strong materials. The destruction of rivers is more expensive than the cost it took to build them. The Elwha dams is an example of the cost it can take to remove dams and restore the ecosystems.

Work Cited

US Army Corps of Engineers. 2004. General Design and Construction Considerations for Earth and Rock-Fill Dams. Washington, DC: US Army Corps of Engineers.

http://www.publications.usace.army.mil/Portals/76/Publications/EngineerManuals/EM_1110-2-2300.pdf

International Journal of Science and Technology. 2008. Influences on selection of the Type of Dam. Firat University. http://web.firat.edu.tr/ijst/3-2/(6)%20%20E miroglu%20civil.pdf

Terri, Cook. (2017, June 1). Dammed if you do…. New Scientist Ltd., 36-39. http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=13&sid=cbf5468f-e14f-4f0d-991a-110350e5eb3b%40sessionmgr120&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=123819973&db=aph

McCully, Patrick. (2001, Oct 4). Dams and Water Quality. Scilenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams. https://www.internationalrivers.org/dams-and-water-quality