Talk:Dam

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

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)

Edit request

Suggested edit

Please change "The earliest known dam is the Jawa Dam in Jordan, 100 kilometres (62 mi) northeast of the capital Amman. This gravity dam featured an originally 9-metre-high (30 ft) and 1 m-wide (3.3 ft) stone wall, supported by a 50 m-wide (160 ft) earthen rampart. The structure is dated to 3000 BC. However, the oldest continuously operational dam is Lake Homs Dam, built in Syria between 1319 and 1304 BC." to "The earliest known dam is the Jawa Dam in Jordan, 100 kilometres (62 mi) northeast of the capital Amman. This gravity dam featured an originally 9-metre-high (30 ft) and 1 m-wide (3.3 ft) stone wall, supported by a 50 m-wide (160 ft) earthen rampart. The structure is dated to 3000 BC."

Reason

Under the History section, there is mention of the Lake Homs Dam as the oldest continuously operational dam, built in Syria between 1319 and 1304 BC. According to the source provided on the Lake Homs Dam Wikipedia page, which is available online to proofread, this is an incorrect hypothesis that has actually been dated to 284 AD due to the typical Roman design, and the basis that it was built by experienced engineers, not beginners as the Egyptians would've been, as they did not build dams even in Egypt in 1300 BC.

Source: Lake Homs Dam Scorchedprince (talk) 02:46, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

 Done Day Creature (talk) 15:54, 2 January 2026 (UTC)

Enhancing article to Good article status

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)

Added "More citations needed" tag to article

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)

Style & citation formatting conventions for the article

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)

Style conventions Addendum 31 May 2026

• All sources: Include publisher & link to publisher, even if red link
• All sources: Only name single author + etal.
• WikiMarkup for citation templates: one field per line (i.e. do not pack multiple fields of the template into a single line)
• Journals:
  • Link to journal name, even if red link
  • Use DOI for journal articles; only include BibCode if DOI is not available.
  • Provide URL even if a DOI link is available, because URL is specifically the website/version/edition that the editor read.

Noleander (talk) 16:03, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

Style conventions Addendum 7 June 2026

• Do not use word "the" before proper names of dams.

Noleander (talk) 03:20, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

Tentative outline for article

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)

Added "under construction" template to article

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)

Wiki Education assignment: Landscape Restoration Ecology

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)

A suggestion

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)

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. Track your hook after promotion. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Crisco 1492 (talk) 00:47, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

Ethiopia built the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile river in 2020, over the objections of Egypt and Sudan.

• ... that many dams built on international rivers have led to political conflicts over water sharing (example pictured), exacerbated by population increases, impacts of climate change, and water scarcity?

• Source: Chellaney, B. (2015). Water, Peace, and War: Confronting the Global Water Crisis. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 1–3, 6–13, 16, 26–27, 38–43, 53–57, 141–150. ISBN 9781442249288. Retrieved 16 May 2026. Ranjan, Amit (2024). "Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Dispute: Implications, Negotiations, And Mediations". Journal of Contemporary African Studies. 42 (1). Routledge: 18–36. doi:10.1080/02589001.2023.2287425. ISSN 0258-9001.

• • ALT1: ... that some dams – called "blast-fill dams" – have been created by blasting explosives on a hillside to cause a rockslide which fills the valley with rock and rubble? Source: Evans, S.G.; et al., eds. (2011). Natural and Artificial Rockslide Dams. Springer. pp. xi, 55, 624–626. ISBN 9783642047633. Retrieved 20 April 2026..
  • Reviewed: Elsie Perrin Williams Estate DYK

Improved to Good Article status by Noleander (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 8 past nominations.

Noleander (talk) 22:16, 30 May 2026 (UTC).

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

Image: Image is freely licensed, used in the article, and clear at 100px.
Freely licensed: Used in article: Clear at 100px:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: Well-done. Dams are very complex. Earwing: 23.1%. ALT1 spotchecked, ALT0 ref 2 is missing a specific page (the ref cites the entire work). I don't have access to Ref1. I'll assume good faith as it is a good article and should have been spotchecked. Hopefully you'll bring it to FA status. Vacant0 (talk • contribs) 14:32, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Citation style conventions

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)

Quotes vs italics

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)