Dams & Reservoirs

[ShadyCavalier]

Ruislip Lido is an ex-reservoir surrounded by woodland and neither element ever felt spooky to me. Perhaps the mix of natural and man-made balanced it all out.

 

[EnolaGaia]

The 20th century penchant for damming now seems to have damned much of humanity to a future of expensive burdens and risk.

UN Warns: Aging Dams Pose Growing Threat – Most of Humanity Could Be at Risk

By 2050, most of humanity will live downstream of large dams built in the 20th century; Increasingly expensive to maintain, experts foresee a trend to decommissioning dams.

By 2050, most people on Earth will live downstream of tens of thousands of large dams built in the 20th century, many of them already operating at or beyond their design life, according to a UN University analysis.

The report, “Ageing water infrastructure: An emerging global risk,” by UNU’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health, says most of the 58,700 large dams worldwide were constructed between 1930 and 1970 with a design life of 50 to 100 years, adding that at 50 years a large concrete dam “would most probably begin to express signs of aging.”

Aging signs include increasing cases of dam failures, progressively increasing costs of dam repair and maintenance, increasing reservoir sedimentation, and loss of a dam’s functionality and effectiveness, “strongly interconnected” manifestations, the paper says.

The report says dams that are well designed, constructed and maintained can “easily” reach 100 years of service but predicts an increase in “decommissioning” — a phenomenon gaining pace in the USA and Europe — as economic and practical limitations prevent aging dams from being upgraded or if their original use is now obsolete. ...

FULL STORY: https://scitechdaily.com/un-warns-aging-dams-pose-growing-threat-most-of-humanity-could-be-at-risk/

 

[Nosmo King]

Diving on a submerged town in the US