Water School

A spillway part of a dam that is designed to allow water to flow freely over the dam during floods. Spillways may be used on dams with floodgates as an additional means to control release of water during flooding.  A spillway may also be used as the main area of water release from a dam, allowing water to flow through the spillway only when the reservoir is full.

A dam is a structure designed to hold back water in a lake, river, stream or other waterbody. Large dams typically include gates or other outlet devices that can be raised or lowered, opened or closed to allow variable amounts of water to pass downstream or leave the lake. The path the water takes to leave the reservoir through the gates is called a spillway.There are several styles of dams used for different purposes to meet specific conditions at the dam site.  The design of the dam is in...