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100-583: The Hall Green Branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in east Cheshire , England. It runs for one mile from Kidsgrove to Hall Green, where it makes an end-on junction with the Macclesfield Canal at Hall Green Stop Lock . The Macclesfield Canal had been authorised by an Act of Parliament obtained on 11 April 1826, but the Trent and Mersey Canal had managed to get a clause inserted into

200-547: A caisson of water in which boats float while being moved between two levels; and inclined planes where a caisson is hauled up a steep railway. To cross a stream, road or valley (where the delay caused by a flight of locks at either side would be unacceptable) the valley can be spanned by a navigable aqueduct – a famous example in Wales is the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site ) across

300-510: A drainage divide atop a ridge , generally requiring an external water source above the highest elevation . The best-known example of such a canal is the Panama Canal . Many canals have been built at elevations, above valleys and other waterways. Canals with sources of water at a higher level can deliver water to a destination such as a city where water is needed. The Roman Empire 's aqueducts were such water supply canals. The term

400-415: A "cistern", or depressed area just downstream from the fall, to "cushion" the water by providing a deep pool for its kinetic energy to be diffused in. Vertical falls work for drops of up to 1.5 m in height, and for discharge of up to 15 cubic meters per second. The transport capacity of pack animals and carts is limited. A mule can carry an eighth-ton [250 pounds (113 kg)] maximum load over

500-537: A block for migrating fish, trapping them in one area, producing food and a habitat for various water-birds. They can also flood various ecosystems on land and may cause extinctions. Creating reservoirs can alter the natural biogeochemical cycle of mercury . After a reservoir's initial formation, there is a large increase in the production of toxic methylmercury (MeHg) via microbial methylation in flooded soils and peat. MeHg levels have also been found to increase in zooplankton and in fish. Dams can severely reduce

600-496: A canal has a series of dams and locks that create reservoirs of low speed current flow. These reservoirs are referred to as slack water levels , often just called levels . A canal can be called a navigation canal when it parallels a natural river and shares part of the latter's discharges and drainage basin , and leverages its resources by building dams and locks to increase and lengthen its stretches of slack water levels while staying in its valley . A canal can cut across

700-815: A chain up the valley. Coastal reservoirs are fresh water storage reservoirs located on the sea coast near a river mouth to store the flood water of a river. As the land-based reservoir construction is fraught with substantial land submergence, coastal reservoirs are preferred economically and technically since they do not use scarce land area. Many coastal reservoirs were constructed in Asia and Europe. Saemanguem in South Korea, Marina Barrage in Singapore, Qingcaosha in China, and Plover Cove in Hong Kong are

800-413: A combination of the three, depending on available water and available path: Smaller transportation canals can carry barges or narrowboats , while ship canals allow seagoing ships to travel to an inland port (e.g., Manchester Ship Canal ), or from one sea or ocean to another (e.g., Caledonian Canal , Panama Canal ). At their simplest, canals consist of a trench filled with water. Depending on

900-658: A conventional oil-fired thermal generation plant. For instance, In 1990, the impoundment behind the Balbina Dam in Brazil (inaugurated in 1987) had over 20 times the impact on global warming than would generating the same power from fossil fuels, due to the large area flooded per unit of electricity generated. Another study published in the Global Biogeochemical Cycles also found that newly flooded reservoirs released more carbon dioxide and methane than

1000-533: A drop of water seep into the ocean without benefiting mankind." He created the reservoir named Parakrama Samudra ("sea of King Parakrama"). Vast artificial reservoirs were also built by various ancient kingdoms in Bengal, Assam, and Cambodia. Many dammed river reservoirs and most bank-side reservoirs are used to provide the raw water feed to a water treatment plant which delivers drinking water through water mains. The reservoir does not merely hold water until it

1100-525: A few such coastal reservoirs. Where water is pumped or siphoned from a river of variable quality or size, bank-side reservoirs may be built to store the water. Such reservoirs are usually formed partly by excavation and partly by building a complete encircling bund or embankment , which may exceed 6 km (4 miles) in circumference. Both the floor of the reservoir and the bund must have an impermeable lining or core: initially these were often made of puddled clay , but this has generally been superseded by

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1200-455: A high-level reservoir is filled with water using high-performance electric pumps at times when electricity demand is low, and then uses this stored water to generate electricity by releasing the stored water into a low-level reservoir when electricity demand is high. Such systems are called pump-storage schemes. Reservoirs can be used in a number of ways to control how water flows through downstream waterways: Reservoirs can be used to balance

1300-549: A journey measured in days and weeks, though much more for shorter distances and periods with appropriate rest. Besides, carts need roads. Transport over water is much more efficient and cost-effective for large cargoes. The oldest known canals were irrigation canals, built in Mesopotamia c.  4000 BC , in what is now Iraq . The Indus Valley civilization of ancient India ( c.  3000 BC ) had sophisticated irrigation and storage systems developed, including

1400-570: A loss in both quantity and quality of water necessary for maintaining ecological balance and pose a risk of increasing severity and duration of droughts due to climate change. In summary, they consider it a misadaptation to climate change. Proponents of reservoirs or substitution reserves, on the other hand, see them as a solution for sustainable agriculture while waiting for a truly durable agricultural model. Without such reserves, they fear that unsustainable imported irrigation will be inevitable. They believe that these reservoirs should be accompanied by

1500-419: A narrow valley or canyon may cover relatively little vegetation, while one situated on a plain may flood a great deal of vegetation. The site may be cleared of vegetation first or simply flooded. Tropical flooding can produce far more greenhouse gases than in temperate regions. The following table indicates reservoir emissions in milligrams per square meter per day for different bodies of water. Depending upon

1600-581: A rather low gradient for its time. The canal is still in use after renovation. In the Middle Ages , water transport was several times cheaper and faster than transport overland. Overland transport by animal drawn conveyances was used around settled areas, but unimproved roads required pack animal trains, usually of mules to carry any degree of mass, and while a mule could carry an eighth ton, it also needed teamsters to tend it and one man could only tend perhaps five mules, meaning overland bulk transport

1700-611: A reservoir is called the "conservation pool". In the United Kingdom, "top water level" describes the reservoir full state, while "fully drawn down" describes the minimum retained volume. There is a wide variety of software for modelling reservoirs, from the specialist Dam Safety Program Management Tools (DSPMT) to the relatively simple WAFLEX , to integrated models like the Water Evaluation And Planning system (WEAP) that place reservoir operations in

1800-740: A river valley, with the potential to wash away towns and villages and cause considerable loss of life, such as the devastation following the failure of containment at Llyn Eigiau which killed 17 people. (see also List of dam failures ) A notable case of reservoirs being used as an instrument of war involved the British Royal Air Force Dambusters raid on Germany in World War II (codenamed " Operation Chastise " ), in which three German reservoir dams were selected to be breached in order to damage German infrastructure and manufacturing and power capabilities deriving from

1900-582: A territorial project that unites all water stakeholders with the goal of preserving and enhancing natural environments. Two main types of reservoirs can be distinguished based on their mode of supply. Circa 3000 BC, the craters of extinct volcanoes in Arabia were used as reservoirs by farmers for their irrigation water. Dry climate and water scarcity in India led to early development of stepwells and other water resource management techniques, including

2000-459: A uniform altitude. Other, generally later, canals took more direct routes requiring the use of various methods to deal with the change in level. Canals have various features to tackle the problem of water supply. In cases, like the Suez Canal, the canal is open to the sea. Where the canal is not at sea level, a number of approaches have been adopted. Taking water from existing rivers or springs

2100-422: Is a channel that cuts across a drainage divide , making a navigable channel connecting two different drainage basins . Both navigations and canals use engineered structures to improve navigation: Since they cut across drainage divides, canals are more difficult to construct and often need additional improvements, like viaducts and aqueducts to bridge waters over streams and roads, and ways to keep water in

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2200-476: Is a natural lake whose level was raised by a low dam and into which the River Dee flows or discharges depending upon flow conditions, as part of the River Dee regulation system . This mode of operation is a form of hydraulic capacitance in the river system. Many reservoirs often allow some recreational uses, such as fishing and boating . Special rules may apply for the safety of the public and to protect

2300-484: Is a water reservoir for agricultural use. They are filled using pumped groundwater , pumped river water or water runoff and are typically used during the local dry season. This type of infrastructure has sparked an opposition movement in France, with numerous disputes and, for some projects, protests, especially in the former Poitou-Charentes region where violent demonstrations took place in 2022 and 2023. In Spain, there

2400-555: Is about 0.75 miles (1.2 km) from the northern portal of Harecastle Tunnel . The stop lock at Hall Green, which has a 12-inch (30 cm) fall from the Macclesfield to the T&;M, was originally built as two chambers end to end, to allow for either canal to be higher. The second chamber fell into disuse when the weir level on the top pound of the Trent and Mersey Canal was permanently lowered after nationalisation to improve

2500-437: Is also used technically to refer to certain forms of liquid storage, such the "coolant reservoir" that captures overflow of coolant in an automobile's cooling system. Dammed reservoirs are artificial lakes created and controlled by a dam constructed across a valley and rely on the natural topography to provide most of the basin of the reservoir. These reservoirs can either be on-stream reservoirs , which are located on

2600-399: Is an enlarged lake behind a dam , usually built to store fresh water , often doubling for hydroelectric power generation . Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrupting a watercourse to form an embayment within it, excavating, or building any number of retaining walls or levees to enclose any area to store water. The term

2700-501: Is greater acceptance because all beneficiary users are involved in the implementation of the system. The specific debate about substitution reservoirs is part of a broader discussion related to reservoirs used for agricultural irrigation, regardless of their type, and a certain model of intensive agriculture. Opponents view these reservoirs as a monopolization of resources benefiting only a few, representing an outdated model of productive agriculture. They argue that these reservoirs lead to

2800-466: Is needed: it can also be the first part of the water treatment process. The time the water is held before it is released is known as the retention time . This is a design feature that allows particles and silts to settle out, as well as time for natural biological treatment using algae , bacteria and zooplankton that naturally live in the water. However natural limnological processes in temperate climate lakes produce temperature stratification in

2900-536: Is now used by the Aquarius Golf Club. Service reservoirs perform several functions, including ensuring sufficient head of water in the water distribution system and providing water capacity to even-out peak demand from consumers, enabling the treatment plant to run at optimum efficiency. Large service reservoirs can also be managed to reduce the cost of pumping by refilling the reservoir at times of day when energy costs are low. An irrigation reservoir

3000-701: Is presumed, introduced in Italy by Bertola da Novate in the 16th century. This allowed wider gates and also removed the height restriction of guillotine locks . To break out of the limitations caused by river valleys, the first summit level canals were developed with the Grand Canal of China in 581–617 AD whilst in Europe the first, also using single locks, was the Stecknitz Canal in Germany in 1398. In

3100-599: Is rarely less than 30 metres (98 ft) wide. In the 5th century BC, Achaemenid king Xerxes I of Persia ordered the construction of the Xerxes Canal through the base of Mount Athos peninsula, Chalkidiki , northern Greece. It was constructed as part of his preparations for the Second Persian invasion of Greece , a part of the Greco-Persian Wars . It is one of the few monuments left by

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3200-418: Is steeper than the desired canal gradient. They are constructed so the falling water's kinetic energy is dissipated in order to prevent it from scouring the bed and sides of the canal. A canal fall is constructed by cut and fill . It may be combined with a regulator, bridge, or other structure to save costs. There are various types of canal falls, based on their shape. One type is the ogee fall, where

3300-419: Is stored in the reservoir. Any excess water can be spilled via a specifically designed spillway. Stored water may be piped by gravity for use as drinking water , to generate hydro-electricity or to maintain river flows to support downstream uses. Occasionally reservoirs can be managed to retain water during high rainfall events to prevent or reduce downstream flooding. Some reservoirs support several uses, and

3400-400: Is the pound lock , which consists of a chamber within which the water level can be raised or lowered connecting either two pieces of canal at a different level or the canal with a river or the sea. When there is a hill to be climbed, flights of many locks in short succession may be used. Prior to the development of the pound lock in 984 AD in China by Chhaio Wei-Yo and later in Europe in

3500-473: Is the portion of the reservoir that can be used for flood control, power production, navigation , and downstream releases. In addition, a reservoir's "flood control capacity" is the amount of water it can regulate during flooding. The "surcharge capacity" is the capacity of the reservoir above the spillway crest that cannot be regulated. In the United States, the water below the normal maximum level of

3600-658: The Elbe , Oder and Weser being linked by canals. In post-Roman Britain, the first early modern period canal built appears to have been the Exeter Canal , which was surveyed in 1563, and open in 1566. The oldest canal in the European settlements of North America, technically a mill race built for industrial purposes, is Mother Brook between the Boston, Massachusetts neighbourhoods of Dedham and Hyde Park connecting

3700-543: The Naviglio Grande built between 1127 and 1257 to connect Milan with the river Ticino . The Naviglio Grande is the most important of the lombard " navigli " and the oldest functioning canal in Europe. Later, canals were built in the Netherlands and Flanders to drain the polders and assist transportation of goods and people. Canal building was revived in this age because of commercial expansion from

3800-545: The Phoenix metropolitan area was the most complex in ancient North America. A portion of the ancient canals has been renovated for the Salt River Project and now helps to supply the city's water. The Sinhalese constructed the 87 km (54 mi) Yodha Ela in 459 A.D. as a part of their extensive irrigation network which functioned in a way of a moving reservoir due to its single banking aspect to manage

3900-528: The River Brue at Northover with Glastonbury Abbey , a distance of about 1.75 kilometres (1,900 yd). Its initial purpose is believed to be the transport of building stone for the abbey, but later it was used for delivering produce, including grain, wine and fish, from the abbey's outlying properties. It remained in use until at least the 14th century, but possibly as late as the mid-16th century. More lasting and of more economic impact were canals like

4000-452: The Ruhr and Eder rivers. The economic and social impact was derived from the enormous volumes of previously stored water that swept down the valleys, wreaking destruction. This raid later became the basis for several films. All reservoirs will have a monetary cost/benefit assessment made before construction to see if the project is worth proceeding with. However, such analysis can often omit

4100-614: The Songhai Empire of West Africa, several canals were constructed under Sunni Ali and Askia Muhammad I between Kabara and Timbuktu in the 15th century. These were used primarily for irrigation and transport. Sunni Ali also attempted to construct a canal from the Niger River to Walata to facilitate conquest of the city but his progress was halted when he went to war with the Mossi Kingdoms . Around 1500–1800

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4200-552: The clearance in Harecastle Tunnel. Whilst the fall of the lock is small, it cannot be taken out of use (as many stop locks have), because lowering the bottom pound of the Macclesfield Canal would lead to draft problems on it (as it is a fairly shallow canal), and raising the top pound of the Trent and Mersey would lead to air draft problems through Harecastle tunnel. Indeed, as Harecastle continues to sink,

4300-556: The reservoirs built at Girnar in 3000 BC. This is the first time that such planned civil project had taken place in the ancient world. In Egypt , canals date back at least to the time of Pepi I Meryre (reigned 2332–2283 BC), who ordered a canal built to bypass the cataract on the Nile near Aswan . In ancient China , large canals for river transport were established as far back as the Spring and Autumn period (8th–5th centuries BC),

4400-404: The stratum the canal passes through, it may be necessary to line the cut with some form of watertight material such as clay or concrete. When this is done with clay, it is known as puddling . Canals need to be level, and while small irregularities in the lie of the land can be dealt with through cuttings and embankments, for larger deviations other approaches have been adopted. The most common

4500-471: The 12th century. River navigations were improved progressively by the use of single, or flash locks . Taking boats through these used large amounts of water leading to conflicts with watermill owners and to correct this, the pound or chamber lock first appeared, in the 10th century in China and in Europe in 1373 in Vreeswijk , Netherlands. Another important development was the mitre gate , which was, it

4600-472: The 15th century, either flash locks consisting of a single gate were used or ramps, sometimes equipped with rollers, were used to change the level. Flash locks were only practical where there was plenty of water available. Locks use a lot of water, so builders have adopted other approaches for situations where little water is available. These include boat lifts , such as the Falkirk Wheel , which use

4700-620: The 1800s, most of which are lined with brick. A good example is the Honor Oak Reservoir in London, constructed between 1901 and 1909. When it was completed it was said to be the largest brick built underground reservoir in the world and it is still one of the largest in Europe. This reservoir now forms part of the southern extension of the Thames Water Ring Main . The top of the reservoir has been grassed over and

4800-467: The Act that required them to build the final mile (1.6 km) of the route. It also enabled them to charge tolls for use of the final section, and to receive all surplus water from the Macclesfield Canal. Work began on construction in 1827, and on 20 March 1829 the engineer Thomas Telford wrote to the Trent and Mersey Company, following an inspection he had made of Knypersley Reservoir, Harecastle Tunnel and

4900-492: The Hall Green Branch was used from that date. Whilst originally built by the Trent and Mersey Canal Company, the branch is often considered as part of the Macclesfield Canal in modern maps and guidebooks. The bridges on the branch are numbered from 94 to 98, following on from bridge 93, the final bridge before the stop lock on the Macclesfield Canal. The Macclesfield Canal seem to have treated it as such almost from

5000-404: The Hall Green Branch. While generally pleased with the standard of the work on the branch, he was not happy with the use of "dense blue clunch", which had been laid on top of the puddle clay. He requested that it be removed, and a covering of gravel used instead. Part of the route was affected by water ingress, and the resident engineer suggested that the bed should be lined with stone slabs before

5100-731: The Meroitic town of Butana . The Hafirs catch the water during rainy seasons in order to ensure water is available for several months during dry seasons to supply drinking water, irrigate fields and water cattle. The Great Reservoir near the Lion Temple in Musawwarat es-Sufra is a notable hafir in Kush. In Sri Lanka , large reservoirs were created by ancient Sinhalese kings in order to store water for irrigation. The famous Sri Lankan king Parākramabāhu I of Sri Lanka said "Do not let

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5200-590: The Persian Empire in Europe . Greek engineers were also among the first to use canal locks , by which they regulated the water flow in the Ancient Suez Canal as early as the 3rd century BC. There was little experience moving bulk loads by carts, while a pack-horse would [i.e. 'could'] carry only an eighth of a ton. On a soft road a horse might be able to draw 5/8ths of a ton. But if

5300-785: The Southwest by 1300 CE. Archaeologists working at a major archaeological dig in the 1990s in the Tucson Basin, along the Santa Cruz River, identified a culture and people that may have been the ancestors of the Hohokam. This prehistoric group occupied southern Arizona as early as 2000 BCE, and in the Early Agricultural period grew corn, lived year-round in sedentary villages, and developed sophisticated irrigation canals. The large-scale Hohokam irrigation network in

5400-488: The US. The capacity, volume, or storage of a reservoir is usually divided into distinguishable areas. Dead or inactive storage refers to water in a reservoir that cannot be drained by gravity through a dam's outlet works , spillway, or power plant intake and can only be pumped out. Dead storage allows sediments to settle, which improves water quality and also creates an area for fish during low levels. Active or live storage

5500-535: The area flooded versus power produced, a reservoir built for hydro- electricity generation can either reduce or increase the net production of greenhouse gases when compared to other sources of power. A study for the National Institute for Research in the Amazon found that hydroelectric reservoirs release a large pulse of carbon dioxide from decay of trees left standing in the reservoirs, especially during

5600-428: The base of the dam or some distance away. In a flat river valley a reservoir needs to be deep enough to create a head of water at the turbines; and if there are periods of drought the reservoir needs to hold enough water to average out the river's flow throughout the year(s). Run-of-the-river hydro in a steep valley with constant flow needs no reservoir. Some reservoirs generating hydroelectricity use pumped recharge:

5700-556: The building of a reservoir at Girnar in 3000 BC. Artificial lakes dating to the 5th century BC have been found in ancient Greece. The artificial Bhojsagar lake in present-day Madhya Pradesh state of India, constructed in the 11th century, covered 650 square kilometres (250 sq mi). The Kingdom of Kush invented the Hafir , a type of reservoir, during the Meroitic period . 800 ancient and modern hafirs have been registered in

5800-436: The canal pressure with the influx of water. It was also designed as an elongated reservoir passing through traps creating 66 mini catchments as it flows from Kala Wewa to Thissa Wawa . The canal was not designed for the quick conveying of water from Kala Wewa to Thissa Wawa but to create a mass of water between the two reservoirs, which would in turn provided for agriculture and the use of humans and animals. They also achieved

5900-418: The canal to form a dam. They are generally placed in pre-existing grooves in the canal bank. On more modern canals, "guard locks" or gates were sometimes placed to allow a section of the canal to be quickly closed off, either for maintenance, or to prevent a major loss of water due to a canal breach. A canal fall , or canal drop, is a vertical drop in the canal bed. These are built when the natural ground slope

6000-462: The canal. Where large amounts of goods are loaded or unloaded such as at the end of a canal, a canal basin may be built. This would normally be a section of water wider than the general canal. In some cases, the canal basins contain wharfs and cranes to assist with movement of goods. When a section of the canal needs to be sealed off so it can be drained for maintenance stop planks are frequently used. These consist of planks of wood placed across

6100-469: The channel. There are two broad types of canal: Historically, canals were of immense importance to commerce and the development, growth and vitality of a civilization. In 1855 the Lehigh Canal carried over 1.2 million tons of anthracite coal; by the 1930s the company which built and operated it for over a century ceased operation. The few canals still in operation in our modern age are a fraction of

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6200-442: The context of system-wide demands and supplies. In many countries large reservoirs are closely regulated to try to prevent or minimize failures of containment. While much of the effort is directed at the dam and its associated structures as the weakest part of the overall structure, the aim of such controls is to prevent an uncontrolled release of water from the reservoir. Reservoir failures can generate huge increases in flow down

6300-561: The dam located at the narrowest practical point to provide strength and the lowest cost of construction. In many reservoir construction projects, people have to be moved and re-housed, historical artifacts moved or rare environments relocated. Examples include the temples of Abu Simbel (which were moved before the construction of the Aswan Dam to create Lake Nasser from the Nile in Egypt ),

6400-460: The developed world Naturally occurring lakes receive organic sediments which decay in an anaerobic environment releasing methane and carbon dioxide . The methane released is approximately 8 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. As a human-made reservoir fills, existing plants are submerged and during the years it takes for this matter to decay, will give off considerably more greenhouse gases than lakes do. A reservoir in

6500-507: The downstream river to maintain river quality, support fisheries, to maintain downstream industrial and recreational uses or for a range of other purposes. Such releases are known as compensation water . The units used for measuring reservoir areas and volumes vary from country to country. In most of the world, reservoir areas are expressed in square kilometers; in the United States, acres are commonly used. For volume, either cubic meters or cubic kilometers are widely used, with acre-feet used in

6600-399: The drop follows an s-shaped curve to create a smooth transition and reduce turbulence . However, this smooth transition does not dissipate the water's kinetic energy, which leads to heavy scouring. As a result, the canal needs to be reinforced with concrete or masonry to protect it from eroding. Another type of canal fall is the vertical fall, which is "simple and economical". These feature

6700-440: The environmental impacts of dams and the reservoirs that they contain. Some impacts, such as the greenhouse gas production associated with concrete manufacture, are relatively easy to estimate. Other impacts on the natural environment and social and cultural effects can be more difficult to assess and to weigh in the balance but identification and quantification of these issues is now commonly required in major construction projects in

6800-499: The first decade after flooding. This elevates the global warming impact of the dams to levels much higher than would occur by generating the same power from fossil fuels . According to the World Commission on Dams report (Dams And Development), when the reservoir is relatively large and no prior clearing of forest in the flooded area was undertaken, greenhouse gas emissions from the reservoir could be higher than those of

6900-670: The first summit level canal to use pound locks in Europe was the Briare Canal connecting the Loire and Seine (1642), followed by the more ambitious Canal du Midi (1683) connecting the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. This included a staircase of 8 locks at Béziers , a 157 metres (515 ft) tunnel, and three major aqueducts. Canal building progressed steadily in Germany in the 17th and 18th centuries with three great rivers,

7000-413: The flow in highly managed systems, taking in water during high flows and releasing it again during low flows. In order for this to work without pumping requires careful control of water levels using spillways . When a major storm approaches, the dam operators calculate the volume of water that the storm will add to the reservoir. If forecast storm water will overfill the reservoir, water is slowly let out of

7100-462: The freedom to make deliveries well away from rail lined road beds or ditches in the dirt which could not operate in the winter. The longest extant canal today, the Grand Canal in northern China, still remains in heavy use, especially the portion south of the Yellow River . It stretches from Beijing to Hangzhou at 1,794 kilometres (1,115 miles). Canals are built in one of three ways, or

7200-759: The higher waters of the Charles River and the mouth of the Neponset River and the sea. It was constructed in 1639 to provide water power for mills. In Russia, the Volga–Baltic Waterway , a nationwide canal system connecting the Baltic Sea and Caspian Sea via the Neva and Volga rivers, was opened in 1718. Reservoir A reservoir ( / ˈ r ɛ z ər v w ɑːr / ; from French réservoir [ʁezɛʁvwaʁ] )

7300-580: The hydroelectric reservoirs there do emit greenhouse gases, it is on a much smaller scale than thermal power plants of similar capacity. Hydropower typically emits 35 to 70 times less greenhouse gases per TWh of electricity than thermal power plants. A decrease in air pollution occurs when a dam is used in place of thermal power generation, since electricity produced from hydroelectric generation does not give rise to any flue gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion (including sulfur dioxide , nitric oxide and carbon monoxide from coal ). Dams can produce

7400-432: The landscape is relatively flat. Other service reservoirs can be storage pools, water tanks or sometimes entirely underground cisterns , especially in more hilly or mountainous country. Modern reserviors will often use geomembrane liners on their base to limit seepage and/or as floating covers to limit evaporation, particularly in arid climates. In the United Kingdom, Thames Water has many underground reservoirs built in

7500-549: The load were carried by a barge on a waterway, then up to 30 tons could be drawn by the same horse. — technology historian Ronald W. Clark referring to transport realities before the industrial revolution and the Canal age . Hohokam was a society in the North American Southwest in what is now part of Arizona , United States, and Sonora , Mexico. Their irrigation systems supported the largest population in

7600-480: The longest canal in the world today and the oldest extant one. It is 1,794 kilometres (1,115 mi) long and was built to carry the Emperor Yang Guang between Zhuodu ( Beijing ) and Yuhang ( Hangzhou ). The project began in 605 and was completed in 609, although much of the work combined older canals, the oldest section of the canal existing since at least 486 BC. Even in its narrowest urban sections it

7700-534: The longest one of that period being the Hong Gou (Canal of the Wild Geese), which according to the ancient historian Sima Qian connected the old states of Song, Zhang, Chen, Cai, Cao, and Wei. The Caoyun System of canals was essential for imperial taxation, which was largely assessed in kind and involved enormous shipments of rice and other grains. By far the longest canal was the Grand Canal of China , still

7800-470: The modern use of rolled clay. The water stored in such reservoirs may stay there for several months, during which time normal biological processes may substantially reduce many contaminants and reduce turbidity . The use of bank-side reservoirs also allows water abstraction to be stopped for some time, for instance when the river is unacceptably polluted or when flow conditions are very low due to drought . The London water supply system exhibits one example of

7900-609: The new top water level exceeds the watershed height on one or more of the feeder streams such as at Llyn Clywedog in Mid Wales . In such cases additional side dams are required to contain the reservoir. Where the topography is poorly suited to forming a single large reservoir, a number of smaller reservoirs may be constructed in a chain, as in the River Taff valley where the Llwyn-on , Cantref and Beacons Reservoirs form

8000-506: The numbers that once fueled and enabled economic growth, indeed were practically a prerequisite to further urbanization and industrialization. For the movement of bulk raw materials such as coal and ores are difficult and marginally affordable without water transport. Such raw materials fueled the industrial developments and new metallurgy resulting of the spiral of increasing mechanization during 17th–20th century, leading to new research disciplines, new industries and economies of scale, raising

8100-415: The operating rules may be complex. Most modern reservoirs have a specially designed draw-off tower that can discharge water from the reservoir at different levels, both to access water as the water level falls, and to allow water of a specific quality to be discharged into the downstream river as "compensation water": the operators of many upland or in-river reservoirs have obligations to release water into

8200-428: The original streambed of the downstream river and are filled by creeks , rivers or rainwater that runs off the surrounding forested catchments, or off-stream reservoirs , which receive diverted water from a nearby stream or aqueduct or pipeline water from other on-stream reservoirs. Dams are typically located at a narrow part of a downstream of a natural basin. The valley sides act as natural walls, with

8300-481: The pre-flooded landscape, noting that forest lands, wetlands, and preexisting water features all released differing amounts of carbon dioxide and methane both pre- and post-flooding. The Tucuruí Dam in Brazil (completed in 1984) had only 0.4 times the impact on global warming than would generating the same power from fossil fuels. A two-year study of carbon dioxide and methane releases in Canada concluded that while

8400-604: The pre-railroad days of the industrial revolution, water transport was the gold standard of fast transportation. The first artificial canal in Western Europe was the Fossa Carolina built at the end of the 8th century under personal supervision of Charlemagne . In Britain, the Glastonbury Canal   is believed to be the first post-Roman canal and was built in the middle of the 10th century to link

8500-432: The puddle clay was applied. Telford advised against this, but there were persistent problems with the water dislodging the clay, and eventually, some 7 yards (6.4 m) of the canal was lined with stone, placed on top of the puddle clay. Water still seeped up between the stones, but did not bring the underlying sand with it, and so the canal remained watertight. The Macclesfield Canal opened throughout on 9 November 1831, and

8600-437: The quality of the water and the ecology of the surrounding area. Many reservoirs now support and encourage less formal and less structured recreation such as natural history , bird watching , landscape painting , walking and hiking , and often provide information boards and interpretation material to encourage responsible use. Water falling as rain upstream of the reservoir, together with any groundwater emerging as springs,

8700-464: The relocation of the village of Capel Celyn during the construction of Llyn Celyn , and the relocation of Borgo San Pietro of Petrella Salto during the construction of Lake Salto . Construction of a dammed reservoir will usually require the river to be diverted during part of the build, often through a temporary tunnel or by-pass channel. In hilly regions, reservoirs are often constructed by enlarging existing lakes. Sometimes in such reservoirs,

8800-638: The reservoir prior to, and during, the storm. If done with sufficient lead time, the major storm will not fill the reservoir and areas downstream will not experience damaging flows. Accurate weather forecasts are essential so that dam operators can correctly plan drawdowns prior to a high rainfall event. Dam operators blamed a faulty weather forecast on the 2010–2011 Queensland floods . Examples of highly managed reservoirs are Burrendong Dam in Australia and Bala Lake ( Llyn Tegid ) in North Wales . Bala Lake

8900-480: The standard of living for any industrialized society. Most ship canals today primarily service bulk cargo and large ship transportation industries, whereas the once critical smaller inland waterways conceived and engineered as boat and barge canals have largely been supplanted and filled in, abandoned and left to deteriorate, or kept in service and staffed by state employees, where dams and locks are maintained for flood control or pleasure boating. Their replacement

9000-453: The start, since their annual meeting held on 18 July 1833 reported that the company had built six wharves, and was in the process of building a seventh at Bosley. One of the original six was at Hardings Wood, close to the final junction with the Trent and Mersey main line. At Poole Lock aqueduct, the canal crosses over the Trent and Mersey Canal main line, which it joins, after a further 0.5 miles (0.8 km), at Harding Junction. This junction

9100-499: The use of bank-side storage: here water is taken from the River Thames and River Lee into several large Thames-side reservoirs, such as Queen Mary Reservoir that can be seen along the approach to London Heathrow Airport . Service reservoirs store fully treated potable water close to the point of distribution. Many service reservoirs are constructed as water towers , often as elevated structures on concrete pillars where

9200-466: The valley of the River Dee . Another option for dealing with hills is to tunnel through them. An example of this approach is the Harecastle Tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal . Tunnels are only practical for smaller canals. Some canals attempted to keep changes in level down to a minimum. These canals known as contour canals would take longer, winding routes, along which the land was

9300-412: The water, which tends to partition some elements such as manganese and phosphorus into deep, cold anoxic water during the summer months. In the autumn and winter the lake becomes fully mixed again. During drought conditions, it is sometimes necessary to draw down the cold bottom water, and the elevated levels of manganese in particular can cause problems in water treatment plants. In 2005, about 25% of

9400-450: The weir level may be lowered further, leading to an increased fall at this lock. Canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation ) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi ). They carry free, calm surface flow under atmospheric pressure , and can be thought of as artificial rivers . In most cases,

9500-476: The world's 33,105 large dams (over 15 metres in height) were used for hydroelectricity. The U.S. produces 3% of its electricity from 80,000 dams of all sizes. An initiative is underway to retrofit more dams as a good use of existing infrastructure to provide many smaller communities with a reliable source of energy. A reservoir generating hydroelectricity includes turbines connected to the retained water body by large-diameter pipes. These generating sets may be at

9600-466: Was also expensive, as men expect compensation in the form of wages, room and board. This was because long-haul roads were unpaved, more often than not too narrow for carts, much less wagons, and in poor condition, wending their way through forests, marshy or muddy quagmires as often as unimproved but dry footing. In that era, as today, greater cargoes, especially bulk goods and raw materials , could be transported by ship far more economically than by land; in

9700-458: Was an option in some cases, sometimes supplemented by other methods to deal with seasonal variations in flow. Where such sources were unavailable, reservoirs  – either separate from the canal or built into its course – and back pumping were used to provide the required water. In other cases, water pumped from mines was used to feed the canal. In certain cases, extensive "feeder canals" were built to bring water from sources located far from

9800-407: Was gradual, beginning first in the United States in the mid-1850s where canal shipping was first augmented by, then began being replaced by using much faster , less geographically constrained & limited, and generally cheaper to maintain railways . By the early 1880s, canals which had little ability to economically compete with rail transport, were off the map. In the next couple of decades, coal

9900-424: Was increasingly diminished as the heating fuel of choice by oil, and growth of coal shipments leveled off. Later, after World War I when motor-trucks came into their own, the last small U.S. barge canals saw a steady decline in cargo ton-miles alongside many railways, the flexibility and steep slope climbing capability of lorries taking over cargo hauling increasingly as road networks were improved, and which also had

10000-426: Was once used to describe linear features seen on the surface of Mars , Martian canals , an optical illusion. A navigation is a series of channels that run roughly parallel to the valley and stream bed of an unimproved river. A navigation always shares the drainage basin of the river. A vessel uses the calm parts of the river itself as well as improvements, traversing the same changes in height. A true canal

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