The Flood Control Controversy: Big Dams, Little Dams, and Land Management

How to manage the cumulative flood safety of catchment dams

Dam safety is a significant issue being taken seriously worldwide. However, in Australia, although much attention is being devoted to the mediumto large-scale dams, minimal attention is being paid to the serious potential problems associated with smaller dams, particularly the potential cumulative safety threats they pose in catchments. This paper establishes the significance of this problem an...

Dams and Storage Reservoirs

Dams and Fish Migration

Droughts, dams, and economic activity

This paper examines the global effects of droughts on economic activity and the influence of local and upstream large dams on this relationship. We use spatially-specific data on drought severity and nighttime lights data as a measure of economic activity. The analysis shows that severe and extreme droughts reduce local economic activity. In preliminary analyses, local dams appear to improve th...

Dams, Environment and Local People

Dams, environment and local people are interrelated. Large dams have several large scale advantages in irrigation, flood control, power generation, inland navigation etc. It is equally true that it has also many large scale adverse impacts inducing controversy and disputes. For example, despite enormous benefits to Canada from large scale dams, the local people of the Basin are still feeling de...