Check dam

Concrete check dams in Austria
A steel check dam
A common application of check dams is in bioswales, which are artificial drainage channels that are designed to remove silt and pollution from runoff.

A check dam is a small, sometimes temporary, dam constructed across a swale, drainage ditch, or waterway to counteract erosion by reducing water flow velocity.[1] Check dams themselves are not a type of new technology; rather, they are an ancient technique dating from the second century AD.[2] Check dams are typically, though not always, implemented in a system of several dams situated at regular intervals across the area of interest.[3]

A check dam across the Kudumbur River, in Kerala, India
  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Marsh, Landscape Planning was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Agoramoorthy, Govindasamy, Sunita Chaudhary & Minna J. Hsu (2008). "The Check-Dam Route to Mitigate India's Water Shortages". Natural Resources Journal. 48 (3): 565–583.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. Erosion Stormwater Manual (PDF) (4th ed.). Mississippi DEQ. pp. 4–118. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2014.