Dataset Information

Global Dam Tracker: A database of more than 35,000 dams with location, catchment, and attribute information.

ABSTRACT: We present one of the most comprehensive geo-referenced global dam databases to date. The Global Dam Tracker (GDAT) contains 35,000 dams with cross-validated geo-coordinates, satellite-derived catchment areas, and detailed attribute information. Combining GDAT with fine-scaled satellite data spanning three decades, we demonstrate how GDAT improves upon existing databases to enable the inter-temporal analysis of the costs and benefits of dam construction on a global scale. Our findings show that over the past three decades, dams have contributed to a dramatic increase in global surface water coverage, especially in developing countries in Asia and South America. This is an important step toward a more systematic understanding of the worldwide impact of dams on local communities. By filling in the data gap, GDAT would help inform a more sustainable and equitable approach to energy access and economic development.

SUBMITTER: Zhang AT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9950439 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Global Dam Tracker: A database of more than 35,000 dams with location, catchment, and attribute information.

Zhang Alice Tianbo AT Gu Vincent Xinyi VX

Scientific data 20230223 1

We present one of the most comprehensive geo-referenced global dam databases to date. The Global Dam Tracker (GDAT) contains 35,000 dams with cross-validated geo-coordinates, satellite-derived catchment areas, and detailed attribute information. Combining GDAT with fine-scaled satellite data spanning three decades, we demonstrate how GDAT improves upon existing databases to enable the inter-temporal analysis of the costs and benefits of dam construction on a global scale. Our findings show that ...[more]

PMID: 36823207

Similar Datasets

Project description:Small surface-release dams are prevalent across North American watersheds and can alter stream flow, thermal regimes, nutrient dynamics, and sediment transport. These dams are often implicated as a cause of negative water quality impacts-including reduced dissolved oxygen (DO)-and dam removal is increasingly employed to restore natural stream processes and improve DO. Published impacts of small dams on DO vary widely across sites, and even less is known about the extent and timescale of DO recovery following removal. Therefore, we sought to quantify the effects of small dams and dam removal on DO and determine the dam, stream, and watershed characteristics driving inter-site variation in responses. We deployed continuous data loggers for 3 weeks during summer months in upstream (reference), impoundment, and downstream reaches at each of 15 dammed sites and collected equivalent data at 10 of those sites following dam removal. Prior to dam removal, most sites (60%) experienced a decrease in DO (an average of 1.15 mg/L lower) within the impoundment relative to upstream, but no consistent impacts on diel ranges or on downstream reaches. Before dam removal, 5 impacted stream reaches experienced minimum DO levels below acceptable water quality standards (<5 mg/L); after dam removal, 4 of 5 of these reaches met DO standards. Sites with wider impoundments relative to upstream widths and sites located in watersheds with more cultivated land experienced the greatest decreases in impoundment DO relative to upstream. Within one year following dam removal, impoundment DO recovered to upstream reference conditions at 80% of sites, with the magnitude of recovery strongly related to the magnitude of pre-removal impacts. These data suggest that broadly, small dams negatively affect stream DO, and the extent of effects are modulated by impoundment geometry and watershed characteristics. These results may help practitioners to prioritize restoration efforts at those sites where small dams are having outsized impacts, and therefore where the greatest water quality benefits may occur.

Project description:Longitudinal connectivity is a fundamental characteristic of rivers that can be disrupted by natural and anthropogenic processes. Dams are significant disruptions to streams. Over 2,000,000 low-head dams (<7.6 m high) fragment United States rivers. Despite potential adverse impacts of these ubiquitous disturbances, the spatial impacts of low-head dams on geomorphology and ecology are largely untested. Progress for research and conservation is impaired by not knowing the magnitude of low-head dam impacts. Based on the geomorphic literature, we refined a methodology that allowed us to quantify the spatial extent of low-head dam impacts (herein dam footprint), assessed variation in dam footprints across low-head dams within a river network, and identified select aspects of the context of this variation. Wetted width, depth, and substrate size distributions upstream and downstream of six low-head dams within the Upper Neosho River, Kansas, United States of America were measured. Total dam footprints averaged 7.9 km (3.0-15.3 km) or 287 wetted widths (136-437 wetted widths). Estimates included both upstream (mean: 6.7 km or 243 wetted widths) and downstream footprints (mean: 1.2 km or 44 wetted widths). Altogether the six low-head dams impacted 47.3 km (about 17%) of the mainstem in the river network. Despite differences in age, size, location, and primary function, the sizes of geomorphic footprints of individual low-head dams in the Upper Neosho river network were relatively similar. The number of upstream dams and distance to upstream dams, but not dam height, affected the spatial extent of dam footprints. In summary, ubiquitous low-head dams individually and cumulatively altered lotic ecosystems. Both characteristics of individual dams and the context of neighboring dams affected low-head dam impacts within the river network. For these reasons, low-head dams require a different, more integrative, approach for research and management than the individualistic approach that has been applied to larger dams.

Dataset Information

Global Dam Tracker: A database of more than 35,000 dams with location, catchment, and attribute information.

Publications

Global Dam Tracker: A database of more than 35,000 dams with location, catchment, and attribute information.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets