A Tool of Sustainable Control of Groundwater Resources: Underground Dams

Climate change, global warming and drought have been on the world agenda since the first years of the 21st century. Türkiye, which has a semi-arid climate, has also experienced periodic droughts. One of the most economical and effective measures for the sustainability of water use is underground dams. An underground dam is constructed as a barrier that blocks groundwater flow to retain and store water in a porous and permeable underground environment. Although underground dams have moderate disadvantages, they are one of the most effective groundwater management methods for efficient and sustainable use of water. As in many countries, the construction of underground dams is on the agenda in Türkiye and there are many underground dams under construction. Moreover, the "Underground Dams Action Plan" (YBEP) is a project announced by the Minister of Agriculture on 22 July 2019 with the slogan "100 underground dams in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye". This article aims to emphasize underground dams as a useful tool for sustainable water management. Moreover, there is no literature and database containing statistical data on the number and location of underground dams in developed and developing countries in the world. In this article, it is aimed to make a brief review of underground dams in the world and to contribute to the literature by presenting data on the number and location of current underground dams in Türkiye.   Received: 26 December 2023 | Revised: 30 May 2024 | Accepted: 12 June 2024   Conflicts of Interest The author declares that he has no conflicts of interest to this work.   Data Availability Statement Data available on request from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.   Author Contribution Statement Pınar Sarı Çavdar: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration.