Why do engineers build dams

Ingber Meghan E. For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource.

If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website.

You cannot download interactives. A dam is a structure built across a stream or river to hold water back. Dams can be used to store water, control flooding, and generate electricity.

Answers: To provide enough water for people and farmers during the summer, to allow boats to cross Birdseye River year round, to help control flash floods, to produce electricity without air pollution. Brainstorming: Ask students to think of all the different ways in which they use water on an everyday basis. Possible answers include drinking, bathing, cooking, swimming, cleaning, etc.

Write these answers on the board and then ask the students to tell you where the water comes from for these activities. Students may answer that water comes from rivers, lakes, and streams, in which case you can start a discussion about the need for dams to store water. Teaming: After you have introduced the hypothetical Thirsty County scenario, divide the class into engineering teams of students each, and ask each team to write a short "proposal" response to the municipality of Thirsty County to address the residents' needs.

For example, students may write a statement that says their team will "address the residents' needs by designing a dam that provides people with water during summer droughts, protects buildings from flash floods and storms, and produces hydropower as a clean energy alternative to coal-fired power plants.

Emphasize that engineers must propose multiple plans to the County Board and convince the board members that their design is worth spending taxpayer money. Encourage students to address topics such as water-saving appliances, efficient water use in gardens and landscaping, both water conservation measures and not building on land that has a high risk of annual flooding. Pros and Cons: Ask students to think of all the benefits of building a dam such as water storage, hydroelectricity, flood mitigation, etc.

Create a list of these benefits on the board. Next, ask students to think of some negative effects of dam construction such as impeding fish migration, damaging flora and fauna, etc. Next to the list of benefits, create a list of these negative effects. Ask students: "What should engineers do when their designs have both positive and negative impacts on society?

Answer: All engineering projects have positive and negative effects. The main job of engineers is to develop plans to help address problems people have without creating new problems or making other problems worse. If Thirsty County has no money for schools and people are starving in the streets, spending money on a dam might not be the best engineering solution to the water issues Thirsty County faces. Plan a field trip to a nearby dam to give students a real-world sense of these often gigantic engineering structures.

If a field trip is not possible, show students a library video on dams or photographs of the Hoover Dam, located on the border between the states of Arizona and Nevada; see a link in the Additional Multimedia Support section. The photograph gallery provides dam views, power plant, historic views and old post cards. Accessed July 8, Accessed February 29, United States Society on Dams. Last revised November 14, Accessed December 4, However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policies of the Department of Education or National Science Foundation, and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.

Why Teach Engineering in K? Find more at TeachEngineering. Quick Look. Partial design process. Print this lesson Toggle Dropdown Print lesson and its associated curriculum. The ancient Mesopotamia ns may have been some of the first humans to build dams. The oldest known dam is the Jawa Dam, located in present-day Jordan. It was built in the fourth century B. Dams provided farmers with a steady source of water to irrigate crops.

This allowed ancient Mesopotamians to feed a growing population. The Roman s were master-dam builders too. They used dams to divert water for drinking, bathing, and irrigation. One of the oldest dams still in use is the Cornalvo Dam in Spain. The ancient Romans built it in the first or second century C. The force of flowing water creates mechanical power. People have harnessed this power for centuries with the use of dams. Small dams powered paddle wheels in pre-industrial Europe and America.

These were used to help saw logs or grind corn and other grains. During the Industrial Revolution, engineers began to build bigger dams. These industrial-sized dams could hold back more water to power the big machinery of factories and mines. They also could turn giant turbines to generate electricity. Roosevelt put Americans back to work building massive dam projects. The most famous of these is the Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam sits on the border between Nevada and Arizona.

It was completed in The Hoover Dam is regarded as an engineering marvel. The pipework, valves and floodgates for dams are designed by mechanical engineers. The civil engineering designers are responsible for producing technical drawings showing how the dam is to be constructed.

They also produce documents stating exactly how some of the construction processes should be carried out to make sure that the final dam is built to a high standard. Civil engineering contractors use this information to build the dam. Engineering geologists investigate the geology of the dam site and the area to be occupied by the reservoir. They provide an overall picture of the types of soils and rocks below the earth's surface, their thickness and the directions in which they slope.

They assess the quality of the ground to determine whether leakage of water from the reservoir could occur. For embankment dams , geologists investigate nearby areas where natural materials can be excavated for their construction.

Engineering geologists also consider whether the site of the proposed dam is in a region where earthquakes can occur. They look for the presence of any faults in the rocks and consider whether an earthquake could cause the fault to rupture. During the Chi-Chi Earthquake in Taiwan, the movement of a fault below the Shihkhang Dam actually broke the dam in two. Geotechnical engineers consider whether the rock or soil foundation below a dam is strong enough to support its weight.