Question

I need help finding a list of modern engineered rivers for my science class.

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I am working on an team assignment on rivers that have been significantly modified by engineering in modern times (= since 1800). Use GALILEO for best search results. One of my peers had already requested the information, but did not receive it. This is the info from my assignment: You can request help from the Library for this assignment. The list format needs to include:
Name of the river.
Country (or countries) through which it flows.
Geographic name of the area where the most engineering took place (can be city, state, province, and so forth).
Time period(s) when those engineering works took place (example: 1900–1912, 2010–current)

Answered By: Linda Kern
Last Updated: Aug 25, 2020     Views: 128

Hello,

Two librarians have looked extensively for such a list, and we haven't been able to locate one. Apparently river engineering is so common that lists aren't kept. As I mentioned to your peer, there are 85,000 dams in the US alone. That's a bunch of rivers.

The additional information about the assignment that you provided leads me to think that your professor doesn't intend for you to locate and use such a list. I think the prof wants you to construct the list. To do that, you may want to search eBook Central, one of our eBook collections. Searching "river engineering" yielded a large number of books, such as Confluence: The Nature of Technology and the Remaking of the Rhône, Great Rivers History, and Unnatural Metropolis : Wresting New Orleans from Nature.

I also suggest that you Google "heavily engineered rivers". This search will yield reputable sources discussing engineered rivers in arid lands (site includes several maps), the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin which is probably the most heavily engineered river in the US, and the River Quaggy in the UK. Searching engineering projects such as "largest dams in the world" will also give you great results.

I gave your colleague a short list of other projects that I came across as we looked for the list. Search the projects you find in the eBooks and in Google.

If your professor is who I think it is, be sure to include projects by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA is one of his favorites.

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