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Dam Engineering and Its Environmental Aspects

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Environmental Geology
  • Originally published in
  • R. A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018

Glossary

Dam :

Civil structure planned, constructed, and operated to meet human needs in flood control, irrigation, supply of drinking water, electricity generation, recreation, and various other purposes.

Dam failure :

Collapse or movement of part of a dam or its foundation, so that the dam cannot retain water.

Guaranty ecological flow :

Required quantity and quality of flow to maintain the sustainability of the river ecosystem (ecological base flow).

Induced subsidence :

Collapse of the surface of the ground due to human activities, mostly reservoir operation and intensive pumping of groundwater.

Karst :

Terrain composed of highly soluble rocks (limestone, dolomite, gypsum, and salt), very risky environment for dams and reservoirs construction.

Large dams :

Dams having a height of 15 m from the foundation or, if the height is between 5 and 15 m, having a reservoir capacity of more than 3 million cubic meters.

Reservoir-triggered seismicity :

Seismic phenomena associated with...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Belgrade, Serbia

    Petar T. Milanović

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  1. Petar T. Milanović
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Correspondence to Petar T. Milanović .

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  1. PELA GeoEnvironmental, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

    James W. LaMoreaux

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    James LaMoreaux Chairman

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Milanović, P.T. (2019). Dam Engineering and Its Environmental Aspects. In: LaMoreaux, J. (eds) Environmental Geology. Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8787-0_308

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