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Provision of fish ladders is another example where dam design can remove or
reduce an adverse effect of dam building. Today every reasonable effort is
usually made to reduce the effect of the dam project on the environment eg
borrow areas for clay, sand and gravel construction materials needed to build
the dam are located, if possible, in the area which will be flooded by the
reservoir so that the disturbed areas will not be visible after the dam is
completed.
Not all adverse effects can be so easily removed. Building a dam changes
forever the flow regime in the river: floods are much reduced in frequency
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The Dam Site 8/29/11 11:36 AM
and size and the natural pattern of short duration floods and long periods of
low flows is changed to a less variable flow regime. In fact the reduction in
flooding may be one of the reasons for building the dam in the first place.
Flooding is damaging to humans and their property but may be necessary in
the life cycles of some species of trees, fish and birds. It may be possible to at
least partially mitigate these adverse effects on the natural environment by
arranging water releases from the dam at specific times of the year to mimic
the natural flooding that occurred before the dam was built.
"The Dam Site" tries to take an objective and scientific approach to the
advantages and disadvantages of dams. Many large cities and developed,
industrial societies could not exist without large dams but it cannot be denied
that some large dams have caused major environmental problems as
described on the following sites:
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