Brazil’s Porto Primavera Dam sits on the Paraná River, 28 kilometers (17 miles) upstream from the confluence of the Paranapanema and Paraná Rivers. Constructed to provide hydroelectricity, this dam created the Porto Primavera Reservoir
Published Apr 27, 2008Chile’s Bíobío River flows northwestward from the high Cordillera of the Andes to the Pacific Ocean near Concepción, about 450 kilometers south of Santiago. The river is known globally for spectacular white-water rafting. This image shows a section of the river that skirts around Callaqui volcano in the Andes, and features the Pangue Dam and reservoir filling a narrow, meandering segment of the Bíobío River valley. Completed in 1996, the dam is the first of six hydroelectric dams planned by ENDESA, a Chilean utility company. The future development of the Bíobío River is a point of intense debate among Chileans, and has been called Chile’s “defining environmental issue.”
Published Feb 16, 2004This false-color image shows the central part of the Vakhsh River, including the Nurek Dam and reservoir.
Published Nov 25, 2008Authorities keeps a watchful eye on ice near a key dam on the Kyiv Reservoir.
Published Mar 31, 2012Construction of the Belo Monte Dam has transformed a major tributary of the Amazon River in northern Brazil.
Published Oct 6, 2017The longest river in Asia, the Yangtze River brings mixed blessings to China. Although it meets the water needs of millions of people, the river regularly overflows its banks. To protect residents and land in the lower Yangtze floodplains, China began construction on the Three Gorges Dam in 1994.
Published Jun 13, 2007People from several villages had to relocate to make way for a new dam that will give the country’s supply of electricity a boost.
Published Feb 24, 2018Acquired in 1986 and 1998, these natural-color images show Argentina’s Limay River before and after the creation of a dam and reservoir.
Published Aug 11, 2012This image from April 15, 2009, is one of the first images that astronauts on the International Space Station have been able to capture of the flooding behind the Three Gorges Dam in China.
Published Jun 8, 2009Acquired August 10, 2004, and May 12, 2012, these images show big changes along the Elwha River thanks to the largest dam removal in U.S. history.
Published Aug 25, 2012