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  Engineering
hydrologists,
involved in the design of a dam, are interested in the quantity
and movement of water at the site. They need to know how much
rain and snow is likely to fall there, how much of it will
soak into the ground and how it will move through the ground.
With this knowledge they can work out the amount of water
that would normally flow into the reservoir
each year, and how big the reservoir needs to be to store
it. They also estimate the size of the waves on the reservoir
that would be caused by wind. This information helps determine
the height of the dam.
They also have to consider the worst
snow or rainfall that could possibly occur, and they design
spillways
to make sure that excess floodwater can be passed safely through
the reservoir without overtopping
the dam.
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