Aging infrastructure coupled with growing interest in river restoration has driven a dramatic increase in the practice of dam removal. With this increase, there has been a proliferation of studies that assess the physical and ecological responses of rivers to these removals. As more dams are considered for removal, scientific information from these dam-removal studies will increasingly be called upon to inform decisions about whether, and how best, to bring down dams. This raises a critical question: what is the current state of dam-removal science in the United States? To explore the status, trends, and characteristics of dam-removal research in the U.S., we searched the scientific literature and extracted basic information from studies on dam removal. One of the main goals of this literature search was to create an online visualization and analysis tool to make this information readily available to both practitioners and researchers.
Results/Conclusions
Our literature review illustrates that although over 1200 dams have been removed in the U.S., fewer than 10% have been scientifically evaluated, and most of these studies were short in duration (<4 years) and had limited (1–2 years) or no pre-removal monitoring. The majority of studies focused on hydrologic and geomorphic responses to removal rather than biological and water-quality responses, and few studies were published on linkages between physical and ecological components. These findings illustrate the need for long-term, multidisciplinary case studies, with robust study designs, in order to anticipate the effects of dam removal and inform future decision making. Information from our literature review was also used to construct the Dam Removal Information Portal (DRIP); an online tool that contains basic information about dam removals and associated dam removal studies in an interactive map-based interface. DRIP is a location where partners, scientists, and practitioners can find up-to-date scientific information associated with dam removal projects.