Rapid growth in the number of large dams has been accompanied by
a progressive increase in the size of the largest dams and reservoirs. The
physical scale of the largest projects is demonstrated by the statistics of
height, volume, and storage capacity given in Tables 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5
respectively. Industrial tailings dams are excluded from Table 1.4.
In appreciating the progressive increase in the number of large dams
and in the size of the largest, it must be recognized that the vast majority
of new dams continue to be relatively small structures. They lie most
6 ELEMENTS OF DAM ENGINEERING
Table 1.3 Highest dams
Dam Country Type Completed Height
(m)
Rogun Tadjikistan TE–ER 1985 335
Nurek Tadjikistan TE 1980 300
Xiaowan China TE In progress 292
Grand Dixence Switzerland PG 1962 285
Inguri Georgia VA 1980 272
Manuel M Torres Mexico TE–ER 1980 261
38 dams greater than 200 m in height.
Table 1.4 Largest-volume dams
Dam Country Type Height Completed Fill volume
(m) ( 106 m^3 )
Tarbela Pakistan TE–ER 143 1976 105.9
Fort Peck USA TE 076 1937 096.1
Lower Usuma Nigeria TE 049 1990 093.0
Tucurui Brazil TE–ER–PG 106 1984 085.2
Ataturk Turkey TE–ER 184 1990 084.5
Guri (Raul Leoni)Venezuela TE–ER–PG 162 1986 078.0
Tailings dams excluded.
Table 1.5 Dams with largest-capacity reservoirs
Dam Country Type Height Completed Reservoir
(m) capacity
( 109 m^3 )
Kakhovskaya Ukraine TE–PG 037 1955 182.0
Kariba Zimbabwe– VA 128 1959 180.6
Zambia
Bratsk Russian Fedn. TE–PG 125 1964 169.3
Aswan (High) Egypt TE–ER 111 1970 168.9
Akosombo Ghana TE–ER 134 1965 153.0
Daniel Johnson Canada VA 214 1968 141.8
