Sea level
How dams fingerprint regional sea-level change
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Impounding reservoir water lowers global mean sea level but can raise relative sea level within about 2000 km of large dams.
How this study connects
Role on claims
Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.
This library holds 3 empirical papers on sea level with measured outcomes rather than reviews.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Impounding reservoir water lowers global mean sea level but can raise relative sea level within about 2000 km of large dams.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
A reef isostasy study or a CMIP transient fingerprint is not a local flood map.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
GRanD reservoirs hold 5,979 km³, equal to a 16.6 mm global-mean sea-level fall (0.15 mm/yr) for 1900–2011; with seepage the drop is 21.8 mm by 2011 and 30.1 mm by 2040. Nearby relative sea level can rise ~40 mm (Manicouagan), opposite the global mean. This is a GRD fingerprint calculation, not an altimeter time series. GRanD holds only ~72% of World Register of Dams volume; 3-D Earth structure is neglected (~1% fingerprint error).
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Only two papers actually confront an altimeter product. The Gulf Stream jump is a hosing-model event with an AVISO northward-shift hint near separation; lead times may differ because the Florida Current is 14% weak and the DWBC 36% strong versus reanalysis. The dam paper is a mass-fingerprint budget term with no altimeter. Combining ‘AVISO shows the Stream jumped’ with ‘dams lowered GMSL 16.6 mm’ as two altimetry results is a category error.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
Open questions
Tensions this paper is part of
From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.
A reef isostasy study or a CMIP transient fingerprint is not a local flood map.
Only two papers actually confront an altimeter product. The Gulf Stream jump is a hosing-model event with an AVISO northward-shift hint near separation; lead times may differ because the Florida Current is 14% weak and the DWBC 36% strong versus reanalysis. The dam paper is a mass-fingerprint budget term with no altimeter. Combining ‘AVISO shows the Stream jumped’ with ‘dams lowered GMSL 16.6 mm’ as two altimetry results is a category error.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Computational / modelling — GRD sea-level fingerprints of GRanD reservoir impoundment plus seepage and future dams
- N
- N=6329 · 6,329 post-1900 GRanD reservoirs (5,979 km³ total volume)
- Population
- Global artificial reservoirs in the GRanD database (1900–2011) and projected Zarfl dams
- Outcome
- Global mean and spatially variable relative sea-level change from water impoundment
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
Inspect source passages
How dams fingerprint regional sea-level change
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
What three processes make the local fingerprint?
The redistribution of water from the ocean to the reservoir will (1) increase the gravitational attraction of the reservoir on the surrounding water and thus raise the local sea surface height, (2) induce a change in Earth's moment of inertia, and (3) drive local crustal subsidence.
Why not scale GRanD volume up to the World Register of Dams?
Although the GRanD database contains only ~72% of the volume reported in the WRD, we do not scale our total impounded water volume to match the WRD values because the primary purpose of this study is to estimate the spatial variability of sea level, and water impoundment not included in the GRanD database has an unknown geographical distribution.
Key findings
GRanD volume of 5,979 km³ equals a 16.6 mm GMSL fall (0.15 mm/yr); with seepage the drop is 21.8 mm by 2011 and 30.1 mm by 2040. Nearby relative sea level can rise ~40 mm (Manicouagan), opposite the global mean.
Methodology
Authors computed yearly gravitational-rotational-deformational sea-level fingerprints for GRanD reservoirs (1900–2011), added seepage, and projected Zarfl hydropower dams to 2040.
Limitations
GRanD holds only ~72% of WRD volume with unknown geography for the rest; future volumes are inferred from hydropower capacity, and 3-D Earth structure is neglected (~1% fingerprint error).
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