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NYS Dam Locations

Jesse Anderson

Description

This map displays the locations of dams across New York State as well as USGS Stream Gauges and weather stations. This map also provides data regarding the population density across the United States.  This map illustrates the distribution of dams across the state quite well. For the most part the distribution of dams is evenly scattered across the state. The distribution of the dams is somewhat sparse in the Adirondacks and is very dense in the southern portion of the state getting closer to New York City. The locations of the USGS stream gauges and weather stations are distributed similar to the dams in New York. They are evenly scattered across the state with the exception of the Adirondacks where they are somewhat sparse. Many of these stream gauges and weather stations are located very close to or the same location as many of the dams in New York State. Another feature that is visible on this map is the location of federal lands. There are only a few small parcels of federal land in New York. The population density is also presented in this map. The northern portion of New York State has a relatively low population density as does a significant portion of the southern tier and western New York. Long Island and the Rochester area have a significantly higher population density of 10,001 to 25,000 compared to that of the northern portion of the state which is 1,001 to 10,000. The most densely populated portion of the state is New York City.

Analysis

The information provided in this map shows a lot of information regarding the location of dams in New York. The part of New York that has the densest distribution of dams would be along the Hudson Valley and the southern portion of the state. The reason for this would be the fact that dams are located on waterways and the Hudson River a significant waterway in New York State.  Another significant waterway that has dams located on it is the St. Lawrence River along the northern border of New York State. The St. Lawrence River is another significant waterway in New York so it is fitting for it to have dams located along the river. The map also shows that many of the dams are clustered together. This would be because there are multiple dams located on many of these waterways. One example of this can be seen near Watertown where there are multiple dams located along the Black River. When the locations of these dams are compared to the location of USGS Stream Gauges a correlation appears. Many of the USGS Gauges are located very close to the dams if not in the exact same location. The reason for this is most likely simple. Since these dams are already located on these waterways they make good locations for monitoring the water levels and water flow. Also since portions of land along the waterways have already been cleared for these dams there is no reason to try and build facilities or monitoring locations in areas that haven’t been cleared. When comparing the locations and density of the dams it also seems that there is a higher density of dams located in the counties and regions of New York that have the highest populations. This could be due to the fact that these areas are most highly developed and have the most significant amount of infrastructure.

Data Source

The data for the location of dams in New York State was collected by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The data is available on the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s website. The data is displayed on google earth and was collected in 2009.