InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Water Science and Society > Student Materials > Section 2: Physical Hydrology > Module 5: Dam It All! > Ponding the Waters: Impacts of Dams
InTeGrate's Earth-focused Modules and Courses for the Undergraduate Classroom
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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
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Ponding the Waters: Impacts of Dams

As we've covered in the first part of this module, the need for dams is largely driven by the uneven distribution of precipitation, resulting river discharge, and thus water supply – in both time and space. Dams control river flows and provide capacitance in the river channel to satisfy demands for continuous water supply (i.e. for irrigation and domestic use, for flood control, and power generation). However, such large-scale alteration of the natural river has wide-ranging impacts both upstream and downstream, where the ecology, geology, hydrology, and human populations have evolved in tandem with undisturbed patterns of variable river discharge. Here we'll briefly cover some of these impacts, and highlight using examples from well-known case studies including the Three Gorges and Aswan High Dams.

These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »