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California WaterBlog

Tag: Deadbeat Dams

  • Can large dams help feed downstream ecosystems?

    By Francisco J. Bellido-Leiva, Nicholas Corline, and Robert A. Lusardi About 1,500 dams obstruct, modify, and regulate flow in all but one of California’s major rivers. These dams provide Californians with reliable drinking and irrigation water, flood protection for low-lying communities, and hydropower for our electrical grid. But dams also threaten downstream ecosystems by severely disrupting…

  • Dam-Failure Flood Risk in California: How to Manage Low-Probability Hazards

    by Kallee Bareket-Shavit, Ryan Miller, and Nicholas Pinter Every year, damaging floods strike somewhere around the world, including sometimes in California like during winter 2022-23. Even a house with just a 1% chance of flooding each year (by the so-called “100-year flood”) has a 26% chance of inundation over a 30-year mortgage. Other natural hazards…

  • Strategic Decision Making for Dam Removal Planning

    By Suman Jumani, Ted Grantham, Lucy Andrews, Jeanette Howard California has a dam problem. Since the start of the 20th century, the state has built thousands of dams on its rivers and streams. Now, more than 75% of the largest dams (totaling over 900) are greater than 50 years old, and the mean age is…