Monday, September 7, 2020

Three Gorges Dam Flood Control limitations.

  


The major take home is that the reservoir has only an 8 % margin and cannot be used to actually store flood waters.  It is a power dam that operates inside a narrow range.  In comparison the Aswan has a 160% margin.

To really do its job as imagined it needed to 250 meters high.  Instead it came in at 175 Meters.  Worse the operations have been privatized and flood control is a last priority at best.

If we are lucky, this may make the dam far more survivable.  Yet we do have a known record of rushed schedules leading to poor curing profiles as well.

This year the dam got stress tested and it seems to be surviving.  This should still not be too comforting.



https://youtu.be/0AwVvl4TQao

No comments: