Innovation in Colorado: High Hazard Dam Release - Downstream Floodplain Impacts Database and Tools

摘要

Dams provide essential services that are often unseen to many: storing water for household use; irrigation; energy production; recreation; and minimizing flooding impacts. However, even when dams are functioning properly, they can release large flows which can contribute to flooding in downstream communities (Figure 1). Recent flooding events in Colorado in 2013 and 2015, and nationwide in 2017, have highlighted how excessive reservoir inflows caused dam spillway flows to exceed normal rates and/or required controlled releases of water to maintain or lower reservoir levels. In some cases, emergency actions have been necessary to address hazardous conditions that developed in the channels and floodplains downstream of the dams.