FINAL PAPER

WATER RESOURCE SYSTEMS

GREEN DAM COMPARED TO CONCRETE DAM

Safyra Nurshafiyana 18R57013

Shinya Hanaoka Lab

Department of Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering

Tokyo Institute of Technology

2018
A. Introduction
Water is a vital importance for the existence of living things. Dam is a structure that built
across a stream, river, lake, or sea. Mostly constructed from earth, natural materials, concrete, and
rocks. The aim of dam is providing water for human needs, irrigating arid and semiarid lands, or for
industrial process. Dam provides a range of economics, environmental, and social benefits. Dam
can be worked properly with spillways, water gates, and valves that control the release of surplus
water downstream from the dam. Furthermore, dam also needs structure that delivers water to a
power station, canals, tunnels, or pipeline. Dams are designed in such a way to store the rain water,
thus there is a continuous supply of water for dry season.Not only necessary for the management of
water, but also affect the environment. Dam is built in order to give benefit to people, the wildlife,
the environment, and the habitats.
At the end of the 20th century, the impact of dam construction on the natural environment is
became an issue that must be concerned of. This issue arose because of the fear that dam will be
blocked the populations of migrating fish, due to the construction of dam across the river and
waterways. In summary, dam is blamed in damaging the environment to serve human desires and
obliterating the environment, that impact the flora and fauna. However, in developing era, dams are
still take an important role in hydroelectric power and irrigation water. Moreover, dams are still
needed in world’s social, political, and economic framework.
In order to minimizing or reducing the negative impact of concrete dam, the former
(2009-2012) governing party DPJ was proposed a new river policy that known as “green dam”
concept. Green dam is forest that accumulates the rain fall in the spongy soil, then the water will
slowly flows to the rivers. In this case, the amount of water in the river will be stabilized. Green
dam is aim to prevent the drought or floods.

B. Necessity of Dam
Not only for flood control, dam is also helps people in many aspects. Dam is provide a range
of economics, environmental, and social benefits. That includes recreation, flood control. Water
supply, hydroelectric power, waste management, river navigation, and wildlife habitat. As a flood
control, a dam will be took role in controlling the amount of water that flows in a river after heavy
rainfall. When heavy rain occurs, the water will be stored in the dam. The floodgates will be used
on top of spillways that will control the amount of water that flows into the river downstream.
One of the functions of dam is irrigation. In different region of the world, there are some
area that needs more water due to dry season. In dry season, the soil becomes very dry that causing
restricts the growth of vegetation. This issue can be solved by irrigation, a system in order to
watering the dry parts. During the rainy season, the irrigation water will be stored in dam. In dry
season, the water that have been stored in dam will be distributed to some locations through a
system of canals. Mostly the water flows under the influence of gravity to the areas that requiring it,
moreover, the water can be pumped out of the canals onto the land.
Furthermore, another function of the dam is power generation or known as hydroelectric
power. Hydroelectric power is the most major source of electricity. In many countries, there is a
river with adequate water flow that can block up for power generation. The water is stored in
reservoir at higher level than the turbines that kept in a power station. In some cases, the power
plant is directly in front of the dam. Then the pipe through the dam may supply water directly to the
turbine. In other cases, the power station is downhill from the reservoir and water is supplied
through long pipes and tunnels. Dam is also one of the water resource for people. In several urban
area of the world, they supply water that abstracted from rivers pent up behind low dams. The water
that stored in reservoirs of the dam is used to provide adequate amounts of quality fresh water to
residential, industrial facilities, and mining sites.

C. Pros and Cons of Green Dam

There are several things that should be considered before change the concrete dam into green dam.
Things that should be considered are include the local climate, risks of flood and landslide, and
sufficient water resource. Is green dam could cover all the functions and necessity of concrete dam?
These are things that should be considered regarding green dam:

• Pros
Green dam concept is one of the important concept regarding dam. This concept if very
beneficial for ecology system. Furthermore, this concept could control the runoff of the catchment
compared to no forest at all. The amount of water in the river could be stabilized by green dam, in
preventing droughts or floods. The dust and dirt that mixed with water will be removed as it moves
through the soil. Thus, the water will get cleaned in the process. Based on this case, the forest or
green dam will become natural water filtering plant. In addition, the trees also beneficial in
absorbing carbon dioxide which is harmful for living things.
• Cons
On the other hand, green dam has the limitation in function compared to concrete dam.
There are several things that should be considered. The water storage capacity of the green dam or
forest dam is not enough in keeping the water that comes from rainfall, specifically when the heavy
rain is occur. Not only the water storage capacity, but also the form of the forest should be
considered. Including the type of tree and layering, forest condition and maintenance are things that
should be taken into considerations for green dam concept. The risks of flood and landslide will be
increased due to green dam. If the green dam can not storage the rain water when heavy rain occurs,
flood or landslide can be occurred and will endanger other living things. Since the water storage
capacity of green dam is not as big as the concrete dam.

D. Conclusion
Based on considerations above, there are things that can be summarized. Green dam can be
used in those such as residential area. Because in several cases, dam is not feasible for runoff
control. Therefore, the forests are needed. In preventing landslides and floods that might be
occurred, the forest should be kept in good condition including the drainage system. The quality of
the forest including leaves, undergrowth and litter layer, soil and bedrock are also need to take into
considerations. Forest dam or green dam could storage water from rainfall, however can not as
much as concrete dam. Thus, concrete dam can not be replaced with green dam. Green dam only
can be categorized as additional dam to help concrete dam storage water.
Besides water storage capacity, another issue that green dam could not covered is
hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric power is the most major source of electricity. It produced the
power by using the potential energy from falling water that stored in reservoirs, in order to generate
water turbines so that the electric generators can be turned on. Since green dam does not have
reservoir, therefore green dam can not supply water to generate the water turbines that produces
power plant. In summary, after several considerations, it can be conclude that green dam is not a
dam and can not replace concrete dam due to its limitations of function. Therefore, green dam can
not cover all the necessities and functions of concrete dam.

E. References
• “TokyoWaterNews.” Water Supply in Tokyo | Tokyo Metropolitan Government Welcome to
TOKYO Waterworks, www.waterworks.metro.tokyo.jp/eng/vol49/archive-47/feature/english.html.

• “Benefits of Dams.” What Is Disaster Assistance? | FEMA.gov, www.fema.gov/benefits-dams.

• “The Importance Of Dams To Water Quality Environmental Sciences Essay.” UKEssays,
www.ukessays.com/essays/environmental-sciences/the-importance-of-dams-to-water-quality-
environmental-sciences-essay.php.

• Brown, J. Guthrie, and Donald C. Jackson. “Dam.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia

Britannica, Inc., 29 Oct. 2017, www.britannica.com/technology/dam-engineering.

• Mahmud, Iqbal. “Uses of Dams with Examples.” Civil Engineering, civiltoday.com/civil-

engineering-blog/11-dam-use.