Talk:Dam

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Usoi Dam in 2009, by Martin Mergili.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 17:06, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

I'm planning on working on the dam article, with the aim of achieving Good article status. I'll probably start within the next few days. It will probably take 2 to 3 months before it is ready for a GA nomination. If anyone has suggestions or comments, I'd be happy to hear them. Noleander (talk) 23:33, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

I'm starting to read sources to assist with the process of promoting this article to GA status. I noticed that a large amount of this article - perhaps 40% - has no citations at all. I'll do my best to retain all the material that is valid & supported by sources ... but if I am unable to find a sources, some facts & sentences may need to be deleted. If you added any unsourced material to this article, this would be a good time to locate sources and insert cites into the article. Noleander (talk) 03:17, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

I'll begin adding material to this article in the near future. The article has some style conventions applied inconsistently. To achieve FA status, stye conventions must be uniform throughout the entire article. My plan is to use these conventions:

• American spellings
• Date format: 15 July 1975 (DMY); BCE / CE
• Measurement units: Metric only
• Sources: All sources are defined in the Sources section using a "Cite" template
• Citations use "sfn" or "harvnb" template; use "sfnRef" template for anonymous sources
• Bundle citations: multiple adjacent cites are bundled into a single [nn] superscript using Template:Multiref
• Book sources: include only one of ISBN, OCLC, LCCN, etc. ISBN preferred. No dashes in ISBNs.
• Sources: include author-link, if available
• Source URLs: Internet Archives is preferred, if available, due to its permanence
• Footnotes: any facts stated in an explanatory footnote require a citation. Same for image captions.
• Journal & magazine sources: include ISSN, if available (format nnnn-nnnn)
• Use DOI for journal aricles; only include BibCode if DOI is not available.
• No quotes in citations. If quote is needed: put into an efn footnote (or body text)
• All page numbers (or ranges) end with a period.
• Titles of all sources use Title Case (regardless of how the source capitalizes itself)
• All images aligned on right side
• Dashes use n-dash (not m-dash or hyphen)
• Do not use false titles (MOS:PSEUDOTITLE)
• Citations to sources with 10 or more pages require a specific page number
• Use Oxford comma
• Follow WP:Summary style and use subarticles to keep this article consistent with WP:SIZERULE
• Spell-out numbers twelve and smaller
• Sources do not display "location" field/city.
• Italics for foreign language words; Single quotes around the English word when translating a foreign word into English via a gloss; Double quotes for MOS:WORDSASWORDS (not italics, because italics are used in this article for foreign words)

Noleander (talk) 23:30, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

I've been looking at sources about dams, and gathering material together. The current article is not bad, but is missing some key areas of coverage. To get this to GA quality, more material will need to added, and it has to be organized in a sensible fashion. I've looked at similar articles, and the sources, and as a tentative outline, the following looks useful:

• Lead
• Etymology
• History
  • Ancient; middle east; Jawa Dam; Sadd el-Kafara, etc
  • Roman
  • East Asia; Jing River in the Gukou valley in China;
  • Persia: Kebar Dam and the Kurit Dam
  • 15th to 17th century; Tibi Dam across the Monnegre River in Spain, a etc
  • 1700 to 1850
  • 1850 to 1950
  • Modern era: 1950 to present

• Purposes/usage
  • Irrigation, agriculture
  • Flood control
  • Hydropower
  • Water supply (esp: to support expansion of large cities: SF, NYC, etc)
  • Tailings dam
  • Recreation (boating, fishing, etc)
  • non manmade: landslide/lava/volcano dams, beaver dams

• Types (manmade)
  • Material: masonry/concrete; earthen
  • Form: Arch (1D & 2D); Gravity/embankment; Gravity-arch; Buttress & Multi-arch;

• Design
  • Design process
  • Site & geology
  • impact assessment: envirnm, society, displacemt, traffic,
  • Specifications & Standards
  • Materials: concrete, earthen, masonry, etc Pros & Cons
  • Risks, Earthquakes, floods
  • Aesthetics

• Auxiliary structures
  • Spillways
  • Gates
  • Locks, boat elevators
  • Turbines/hydropower
  • Penstocks; inlet towers; outlets (tunnels & bypasses)
  • Saddle dam
  • Fish ladders

• Construction (process)
  • Cofferdams & Diversion of river (tunnels?)
  • Grouting
  • Foundations
  • Building the dam
  • Filling
  • Hydropower facilities

• Operations and maintenance
  • Management procedures
  • Maintenance & Repairs
  • Inspection & Monitoring
  • Sedimentation of reservoir
  • Leaks
  • Dam removal

• Safety & Failures
  • Failures: prominent examples
  • Risk analysis; lessons learned;
  • Mitigation methods

• Society and culture
  • Environment: fish; habitats; lack of downstream sediment and scouring; global warming related to concrete productions; etc
  • Social; Displacement of peoples (3 gorges; Aswan Abu Simbel & Nubian displacyemt)
    • Flooding architecture, artifacts, etc
  • Economic: positive & negative (Positve = Hydropower; stable irrigation, etfc)
  • International geopolitics & disputes; water-sharing, water scarcity; (GERD etc)
  • Profession and regulation (C.E.; licensing; ICOLD,) see Bridge artcle
  • Art and culture: in song ("Roll On"); in art; in literature; in films/TV; on currency; etc

Any comments or suggestions are welcome. Noleander (talk) 17:31, 23 April 2026 (UTC)

I added an "under construction" template to article because I'm starting to update the article sections to conform to the outline as specified in the Talk page topic immediately above. At the same time, I'll gradually add new body text material (may take 2 to 4 months). I'll remove existing unsourced material (if I cannot find sources). I'll remove the template when most new body text material is added. Noleander (talk) 21:05, 29 April 2026 (UTC)

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation–supported course assignment, between 20 January 2026 and 22 May 2026. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Micogreen.

— Assignment last updated by Micogreen (talk) 18:59, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

That's cool. FYI i'm currently rewriting the entire article, will probably take me another two months. Noleander (talk) 19:06, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

Could a link to Ancient Roman engineering be included in the article? Best, MSincccc (talk) 14:16, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

Good suggestion. Done. Noleander (talk) 14:35, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

That's all from me now. I look forward to it at Peer Review. Meanwhile, I have exams in real life. Best, MSincccc (talk) 17:49, 18 May 2026 (UTC)

The Aswan High Dam in Egypt displaced 50,00 Nubians and devastated the Nubian community

• • Is “50,000” intended, or another figure? Sources on Google vary (60,000–80,000; ~100,000), so I am unsure which is appropriate.

Best, MSincccc (talk) 14:04, 23 May 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing out the 50,000 issue. I had a typo there "50,00", I corrected it to 50,000. I think the number displaced is uncertain. Various values are given by sources. The Collins source (p 189) gives "50,000" and it is an excellent source, so it is simplest to use that figure. Noleander (talk) 14:19, 23 May 2026 (UTC)

Conventions used for cites in this article include:

• Link to journal name, even if red link
• Include journal publisher & link to publisher, even if red link
• Single author + etal.
• No BibCode if DOI is available.
• Provide URL even if a DOI link is available, because URL is specifically the website/version/edition that the editor read.
• For other style conventions used in this article, see above in this Talk page at #Style_&_citation_formatting_conventions_for_the_article

If anyone wants to discuss changing the conventions, please discuss first here in Talk page. Thanks. Noleander (talk) 15:58, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

@Chris Capoccia: Thanks for your interest in this dam article. May I draw your attention to the conventions used in this article, described at Talk:Dam#Style_&_citation_formatting_conventions_for_the_article. You've made similar edits twice: once on 9 June 2026 and again today. Both times performing the same edits that are contrary to the established style/cite conventions of that article. I realize that those kinds of changes may be fine for other article that have no conventions established, but the dam article is in good shape and doesn't need additional work in that area. Thanks. Noleander (talk) 18:22, 21 June 2026 (UTC)

Regarding the English word "dam" used in the article as words-as-words: WP:WORDSASWORDS permits double quotes to minimize confusion when italics are used nearby, e.g. for foreign words. That style convention was adopted for the article in Talk page above at Talk:Dam#Style_&_citation_formatting_conventions_for_the_article. Noleander (talk) 19:15, 18 July 2026 (UTC)

@ProtectingFreshwater: New material on water temp might be okay. But the article is way big already: 9,800 words (9,000 is the goal). So any new material needs to be really significant. Do you have any of this:

• Secondary sources that talk about the water temp issue? That is: sources about dams in general, and synthesize/summarize primary research from journals.
• Two or more of the above
• Ideally with a global/international aspect (i.e. sources that focus only on US are not ideal)

Then, if the sourcing demonstrates the import of the material, proabably okay to add it. Then: the citation style needs to match the style already used in the article. Noleander (talk) 02:31, 8 September 2026 (UTC)