Drone Videos of Dams and Canals

Contributor TampaRandy created this beautiful narrated video from Hoover Dam, arguably the world's most famous.  Situated on the Colorado River about a half-hour drive from Las Vegas, the 221 meter (726 ft.) tall concrete gravity dam created Lake Mead, the USA's largest reservoir.  A Depression-era public works project designed for hydroelectricity and flood control, its construction cost over a hundred lives but provided much-needed employment for thousands and helped give birth to modern Las Vegas.  

Multiple Drone Video of the Week Finalist Makhorov brings us this stunning drone video of a gigantic hydroelectric dam in Russian Siberia.  Boguchany Dam is located in the town of Kodinsky in Krasnoyarsk Krai, one of the oblasts (provinces) of the Siberian Federal District.  It's situated on the Angara River, a major tributary of the Yenesei.  While the dam construction began in the 1970's, it wasn't completed until 2015.  It has a rated capacity of almost 3 gigawatts, making it Russia's fourth largest hydro generator as of 2020.

The Theodore Roosevelt Dam is located in Arizona, in the Southwestern United States.  The dam, which is primarily for irrigation and flood control rather than to generate electrical power, was built in the early 1900s.  With a height of over 100 meters (350 ft), the spillway moves up to 4,300 cubic meters of water (150k cu ft) per second.  Contributor and pilot RusselKriz85 used a drone to create this amazing aerial video of the structure, which is a  protected landmark under US conservation laws.    

Shongweni Dam is located in eastern South Africa, near the city of Durban.  Situated on the Sterkspruit and Wekeweke Rivers, it provides hydroelectricity as well as agricultural irrigation to Durban (the country's third largest city by population) and the surrounding areas.  The reservoir created by the dam is popular with kayakers and others seeking outdoor recreation in the area.  Contributor AV8 Africa used a drone to fly over the dam and reservoir, giving us a great bird's eye view of this South African landmark.

Wjmdronie used a DJI Phantom 4 drone to create this epic aerial view of a well known dam in Switzerland.  Émosson Dam is situated in the Valais canton in the southwestern part of the country, close to the French border.  It was completed in 1974, after a seven year construction period.  The dam is powered by runoff from several glaciers in the Swiss Alps, which are channeled to the dam through a valley.  The dam necessitated a Swiss/French land exchange to keep it entirely on Swiss territory.  

Australia's Cotter Dam was vital to the construction of its capital city Canberra.  The dam was built not for electricity generation but to serve as a critical source of freshwater needed to make Canberra, a compromise choice, the permanent capital of Australia when it became an independent country in the early 1900's (after an interim period when Melbourne was the capital).  Matteo Pictures used a drone to create this spectacular aerial view of this gravity dam in southeastern Australia.  

Check out this drone video of Romania's gigantic Vidraru Dam, compliments of contributor Guydrory.  The dam on the  Argeș River in the Transylvania region was completed in 1966.  It has a height of just over 160 meters (around 550 ft.) With an electrical generating capacity of 220 MW, the dam generates over 400 GWH of electrical power per year, a bit less than 1% of Romania's total electricity demand.  The dam took about five years to build, in the process of which nearby Lake Vidaru was created as a reservoir.

The Châtelot's dam is located on the Doubs river, between France and Switzerland. It was inaugurated in 1953. The dam stands 74 meters high (243 ft.) high and 150 meters wide  (492 ft.). It holds 20 millions cubic meters of water and provides 10% of the power consumption of Neuchâtel, one of the cantons which makes up northwestern Switzerland.  Contributor and pilot AbovetheClouds used a DJI Phantom 4 Professional drone to create this amazing aerial video of the dam structure.  

Hatta is an area in the interior of the United Arab Emirates, about 135 km (90 mi) from the city of Dubai.  Situated in the Hajar Mountains, Hatta is usually considerably cooler than the city, and water is plentiful.  In the 1990's Hatta Dam was created to provide hydroelectric power to the area.  Top contributor Joe Images used a drone to create this amazing aerial view of the dam and the reservoir created by it.  The reservoir lake has become a popular destination for water sports enthusiasts in this desert kingdom.  

The Devils Gate Dam is a part of the Mersey-Forth Hydro Scheme which flows down from the highlands to the ocean in northern Tasmania, the island state of southeastern Australia.  Mersey-Forth draws from four separate rivers and runs seven power stations.  Contributor FergTas was fortunate to be near the dam when there was visible mist rising from the dam spillway.  Using his drone he created this amazing aerial video of this major hydropower project with double rainbows in the background.  

Award-winning contributor Postandfly created this spectacular drone video of a side of Mexico City most never knew existed. Xochimilco is a southern borough of the Federal District, the city's metropolitan administrative region.   Located south of the core city center,  Xochimilco began its life as an independent Aztec city, known for a vast network of canals.  With the growth of the capital city, it became essentially a vast suburb of Mexico City, yet one which has a highly distinctive and visually appealing look.  

Blessed with massive rivers, the huge and largely industrialized country of Brazil relies on hydropower for an astounding three quarters of its electricity supply.  That's more than any other major country.  Not surprisingly, giant hydropower projects on major rivers represent some of the most important infrastructure assets in the country.  In this video, contributor Sparkers used a drone to aerially film one of these projects, the Represa Itupararanga Votorantim dam in the state of Sao Paulo. 

Not all dams provide electricity; many of these structures are built for flood control or to provide drinking or irrigation water.  Case in point is Burrator Dam, in County Devon in southwestern England.  It's actually a system of two dams, with Burrator being the largest.  Situated on the River Meavey, the dam was completed in 1898 primarily to supply drinking water to the region.  In this video, you'll get a bird's eye view of this prominent structure and the reservoir created by it, courtesy of contributor Flying Horizons.

Among the many historical treasures of Eastern Turkey is the Shamiram Canal, which was once also known as the Menua Canal.  Located a short distance to the east of the provincial capital Van, the canal predates the Roman aquaducts by centuries.  It was constructed in the 8th century BC on the orders of the king of Uartu, an ancient kingdom in what is now the region of Eastern Anatolia.  Content creator and drone pilot Skaty brings us this marvelous aerial view of this marvel of early hydro-engineering.  

The Verzasca Dam (also known as Contra Dam) is the fourth-tallest dam in Switzerland but probably the most well-known. The reason is that it was the "co-star" of one of the most famous stunt scenes in cinematic history: the bungee-jumping sequence which opened the 19th James Bond movie, GoldenEye (1995).  In this drone video by Kpax, you'll get a bird's eye view of the 1960's-era structure in Ticino, the Italian-speaking Canton in southeastern Switzerland.  It's on the Verzasca river, just upstream from Lake Maggiore.   

One look at this drone video from contributor Skybounddrones will tell you where the city of Venice, California got its name. The town was built in the early 1900's by millionaire Abbot Kinney, who bought a stretch of coastline south of Santa Monica and decided to call it Venice in recognition of the canals which were needed to drain its marshes and make it habitable.  Today, it's one of the most fashionable spots along the line of beach communities which are commonly referred to as Silicon Beach.  

Content creator and pilot Sebastian Ferguson used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to create this aerial video of an important dam in Western Germany.  The Urft Dam is situated on the river of the same name in the state of North Rhine Westphalia.  Built in 1905, the gravity dam has a height of just under 60 meters (around 200 ft.).  While the dam provides a modest amount of hydropower, it was built primarily for water management.  Urfit was, briefly, the tallest in Europe until the construction of Bober Dam in Silesia in 1912.

Check out this drone video of a major new canal in South Korea, compliments of FLYKOREA.  The Ara Canal connects the Han River (one of the country's most important waterways) to the Yellow Sea on the western side of the Korean Peninsula.  It runs between the Seo District of Incheon (South Korean's third largest city and part of Greater Seoul) to the Seo District of Seoul.  Completed in 2012 at considerable cost, the canal was built both to provide outdoor leisure opportunities as well as for flood control.  

AirVuz contributor nunovalente brings us this excellent drone video of the giant Alqueva Dam project in Portugal.  The dam is situated on the Guadiana River, which originates in neighboring Spain and flows through southern Portugal into the Gulf of Cádiz.  The dam was completed in 2002, although the giant reservoir lake (the largest in Western Europe) wasn't fully filled until 2010.  In addition to providing hydroelectricity, the dam and reservoir helps to assure a steady water supply for the sometimes drought-prone region of Alentejo.  

Contributor Catchuppy gives us a bird's eye view of Bicaz Lake and Dam in the Moldavia region of northeastern Romania.  The dam was completed during the Communist era in the 1950's.  It created Bicaz Lake, the largest artificial lake in the country.  The dam has a height of just over 127 meters (almost 400 ft.), making it one of the tallest dams in Eastern or Southeastern Europe.  The dam has installed capacity of just over 200MW and generates about 500MWH of electrical power on an annual basis.

In this drone video, contributor and pilot DodgeyJess does a great job of aerially capturing one of the largest hydroelectric dams in Australia.  The Wellington Dam Hydro Power Station is located near the town of Collie, near the southwestern corner of the country in the state of Western Australia.  Situated about a two hour drive south of the WA state capital of Perth, the power station was built in the 1950's.  Fed by the Collie River, it's the second largest hydro generator in the state of WA.  

Here's an amazing bird's eye view of a well known hydro-electric dam in Portugal, compliments of SJetMan. It's called the Castelo de Bode Dam, and it sits on the Zêzere River in the Santarém District, which is part of the Centro region of the country.  Completed in the early 1950's, the concrete arch-gravity dam stands 115 meters tall (about 375 ft.), making it one of the tallest structures in the country.  The Zêzere River is a tributary of the Tagus, Portugal's most important waterway. 

Contributor MIAPVIDEOS created this fascinating drone videos of one of the technological wonders of the Czech Republic: the Dlouhe Strane Hydro Power Station.  It's what's known as a pumped storage power plant, where flow from a nearby river (the Desná) generates electricity, some of which is used to pump water to the mountaintop reservoir you see in the video.  Situated in the province of Oloumoc, it's the largest hydro power station in the country and is home to Europe's largest reversing turbine.

Check out this drone video of one of the USA's largest dams, compliments of contributor AdventurousDrone.  Shasta Dam is located in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California.  A concrete gravity-arch dam on the Sacramento River, the dam's reservoir holds up to 6 trillion liters (about 1.5T gallons) of water.  Even before it was completed in 1945, the dam provided hydroelectricity to help power California's wartime factories; it also provides flood control and irrigation water to the region.  

Check out this amazing drone video of Europe's tallest dam, compliments of contributor Kpax.  It's called the Grande Dixence Dam, and it's in the Valais canton in the southwestern part of the country.  Fed by Lake Dix, he concrete gravity dam stands 285 meters (just over 975 ft.) tall.  Commissined in 1965 after 15 years of construction, the dam provides about 2GW of electrical power.  In addition to being the tallest dam in Europe, it's the world's tallest gravity dam and the fifth tallest overall.

Check out this amazing drone video of an important dam in northeastern Spain, compliments of contributor and pilot Javi.Bdn.  It's the Llosa del Cavall dam on the Cardener River in the province of Lleida, which lies in the western part of the country's (northeastern) Catalonia region.  The double-arch dam, completed in 1997, measures just over 120 meters (about 400 ft.).  The dam is currently used for flood control rather than power generation, although the infrastructure to produce hydropower is in place.  

When it was opened in 1912, the Panama Canal represented one of the great feats of human engineering up until that time.  The 80 km (50 mi) waterway hacked out of the Panama Jungle connects the Atlantic (via the Caribbean Sea) and Pacific Oceans, shortening many routes by thousands of mi/km.  In this excellent drone video by AirVuz contributor Damiano862, you'll get an aerial view of a large containership making its passage through the great waterway, which was recently deepened to allow for the passage of larger ships.  

AirVuz content creator and pilot Kpax created this drone video of a well-known alpine reservoir lake and dam in southeastern Switzerland.  The lake is called Lago di Luzzone, and it's near the city of Ticino in the Italian-speaking (southern) part of the Federation.  It feeds the arch dam Luzzone, which was competed in 1963.  One of the dam's walls has been converted into a climbing wall, the highest in the world, which covers a vertical span of 165 meters (around 550 ft.) and has 650 bolts and hold points.  

Content creator and pilot Normal Mexican Guy created this fascinating drone video of the Virgilio Uribe rowing course in the Xochimilco District south of central Mexico City.  It runs through a series of canals here which are vestiges from the extensive lake system which covered much of the Valley of Mexico in Pre-Columbian times but which was drained by the Spanish to control floods.  Famously, the course was used as the venue for rowing events when Mexico City hosted the 1968 Summer Olympics.  

Former Drone Video of the Week Winner Enrico Pescantini brings us this excellent drone video of the site of a tragic dam collapse in northern Italy.  The Gleno Dam was built between 1916-23 on the Gleno Creek in the province of Bergamo, which is part of the region of Lombardy.  Less than six weeks after its reservoir was filled, a section of the buttress dam collapsed, sending over a billion gallons (4.5 million cubic meters) of water into the valley below.  Over 350 people were killed in the disaster.  

Here's a drone video of a well-known hydroelectric dam in Scotland, compliments of content creator and pilot Hightning McQueen.  It's known as the Loch Sloy Dam, which opened in 1950 in a ceremony attended by Queen Mother Elizabeth (barely into her fifties).  Its powered by water running into Loch Lomond, on the southern edge of the Scottish Highlands.  During the five year construction period, twenty one men lost their lives building the dam, which is now a protected Scotland historical site as well.

One of the major natural dangers facing any non-arid plains area is flooding.  This is particularly so if there is a nearby river.  As a country on the Great Plain of Europe and crossed by numerous rivers, the Dutch developed some of the most sophisticated flood control techniques the world has ever seen.  Perhaps the best place to see this is in the area around Kinderdijk, a small town in South Holland near the confluence of several rivers.  See Kinderdijk from above, compliments of contributor Pepinair.

If you are skeptical about how a hydroelectric dam can be called beautiful, you should check out this drone video by content creator and pilot Kpax.  He put together an amazing aerial tour of the Lago della Sella reservoir and gravity dam in the Ticino Canton of southern Switzerland.  Completed in 1947, the dam has a height of 36 meters (about 120 ft.).  The video also features footage of the nearby Passo Scimfuss mountain pass, which has an elevation of a bit over 2.2k meters (just under 7.4k ft.).  

Check out this drone video of one of Greece's Marathon Dam, compliments of DRONEAS GR.  It's a gravity dam on the Charadros River just a few km/mi west of its namesake town and about a half hour drive northeast of Athens.  Opened in 1929, the project's primary purpose was to supply drinking water to Athens, which at the time was being inundated with refugees from Turkey.  The dam was seen to be a symbol both for the modernization of Greece as well as to commemorate the great Greek victory over Persia at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.  

Alder Dam in the USA's Pacific Northwest was once one of the tallest in the world.  It sits on the Nisqually River, which drains a portion of the Cascades Mountains into Puget Sound.  The dam was built during World War II to supply electrical power to nearby Tacoma, which needed electricity to power its wartime production factories.  Seen here in this drone video by Yi Jun Luo, the dam stands 100 meters tall (around 330 ft.), 490 meters (around 1.6k ft.) wide, and an astonishing 37 meters (120 ft.) thick.  

Check out this excellent drone video of Pakistan's giant Khanpur Dam, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot oculusfilms.  The dam sits on the Haro River less than an hour's drive from Islamabad in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.  It was completed in 1983, following a 15 year construction period.  The project supplies drinking water to the national capital city as well as to its "twin" city Rawalpindi.  The reservoir's distinctive blue-green water has also led it to become a major tourist attraction,