مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - The Influence of Dams on Surrounding Climate: The Case of Keban Dam

Abstract :

Dams are subject to study not only with their benefits but also with their effects to environment. However, sometimes the advantages can outweigh its advantages due to environmental effects. Dams which are built for both irrigation and energy production have significant effects on the environment and climate. The environmental effects of dams reflect as erosion and siltation while climatical effects reflect as local differences in climate parameters as a result of creation of greenhouse gases and large water surface by incorrect engineering planning of dams .While projects of dams on the Euphrates River which date as far back as 1930’s, their construction was started after 1970. One of these dams, Keban, is highly important investments for which Turkey’s electricity production and irrigation. In this study, it was analyzed whether Keban Dam created differences in climatic parameters as spatial and temporal in their environment. For this purpose, two non-parametric methods (Mann-Kendall rank correlation test and Sen s slope estimate) were used to detect the meteorological variables trends. Data stations in which are located close to dam and relatively distant from the dam were used. As a result, while temporal differences were determined in average temperature, temporal and spatial differences were determined in humidity values.