water diversion
Redirecting a flow
Water diversion is the redirecting of water from its natural course to serve human purposes—irrigation, municipal supply, hydroelectric power, or flood control.
Canals, dams, and pipelines are common diversion infrastructure.
Large-scale diversions can dramatically alter ecosystems downstream: The diversion of rivers feeding the Aral Sea caused one of the worst environmental disasters of the 20th century.
- aqueductsChannels conveying water distances
- reservoirsBodies storing water supply
- irrigationArtificial water supply for agriculture
- canalsConstructed water passages
- weirsLow overflow dams
headgate · Roman aqueducts · dams · siphons · habitat fragmentation · watershed · river basin · culverts · fish ladder · spillway · levees · pipelines · groundwater depletion · drought relief · flood control · divert · tunnel · redirect
- water systemsirrigation ditches, irrigation, pipes, tanks, wells
- Water Engineeringdams, levees, canals, aqueducts, spillways
- flood controllevee, levees, flood channels, dike, dikes
- water managementdam, irrigation, watershed, cistern, drainage
- water rights
- waterway engineeringdredging, levees, locks, spillways, floodgates
water diversionnatural flow
Unimpeded organic movement
stream restoration · river restoration · natural channel · run-of-river
water diversionwater storage
Holding liquid reserves
damming · water retention · impoundment · water conservation · rainwater harvesting