Reservoir Storage Capacity Change Readme


Authors:
Antonia Chu, Carly Hansen, Jiyong Lee, Mirko Musa


Citation:
Chu, A, Hansen, CH, Lee, J. Musa, M. 2025. Reservoir Storage Capacity Change. HydroSource. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.21951/3001919 


File Descriptions:
ResCap.csv: Contains the reservoir storage capacity of surveyed reservoirs in the conterminous US based on compiled data.
ReservoirStorageCapacity_field_descriptions.csv: A data dictionary describing the fields in ResCap.csv.


Abstract:
Storage capacity is an essential reservoir metric that is directly linked to various water management and energy objectives. Accurate reporting and tracking of change in storage over time is crucial for the safe and reliable operation of the associated dam. While storage information is available for many reservoirs through the National Inventory of Dams, additional details, e.g. water elevation levels as well as changes over time are not included. 
This dataset contains reservoir storage capacities based on conducted surveys in CONUS. To represent changes in a reservoir's storage over time, the storage capacity as determined by the first and last conducted survey is listed. The level of detail of surveys can vary greatly and improved with technological advancements. Therefore, the type of survey and year when it was conducted is noted. To ensure a fair comparison of storage capacities, the water elevation level along with the corresponding operation of the dam is reported. Structural changes, e.g. heightening of a dam will have an influence on the storage capacity and are therefore also mentioned. A total of 739 different reservoir storage capacity comparisons are listed, with some reservoirs represented more than once (storage capacity comparison at different water elevation levels).

Methodology:
Data were acquired from USBR reservoir survey reports, TWDB lake survey reports and elevation-area-capacity tables, the RSI Web Portal and the NID (USACE, 2024). Initial storage capacity along with year and type of survey record is compared to the most recent reported storage capacity, survey type and year. Comparison elevation in feet as well as comparison elevation type were either extracted from survey reports (USBR, TWDB) or the Web Portal (RSI) and in some cases cross-referenced with data from other sources (Water Management Data, USACE, Water Data for Texas, TWDB).

Related Datasets:
Carly H. Hansen, Paul G. Matson, Bryan B. Bozeman and Sean Turner. 2024. Hydropower Infrastructure – LAkes, Reservoirs, and RIvers (HILARRI), Version 3. HydroSource. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.21951/HILARRI/2474802

References:

USBR. 2025. Technical Service Center. Reservoir Surveys. Available at https://www.usbr.gov/tsc/techreferences/reservoir.html

Texas Water Development Board. 2025. Surface Water. Lake Surveys. Available at https://www.twdb.texas.gov/surfacewater/surveys/completed/list/index.asp

USACE. 2024. Enhancing Reservoir Sedimentation Information Web Portal (RSI). Retrieved September 5, 2024. Restricted access.
 
USACE. 2024. National Inventory of Dams. Retrieved September 4, 2024. Available at https://nid.usace.army.mil/#/downloads
USACE. 2025. Water Management Data. Available at https://water.usace.army.mil/

TWDB. 2025. Water Data for Texas. Reservoirs. Available at https://www.waterdatafortexas.org/reservoirs/statewide

Dataset contacts:
Antonia Chu chuab@ornl.gov
Carly Hansen: hansench@ornl.gov
  

Acknowledgement:
Thank you to our federal project partners, Dr. Melissa Foster at USBR and Dr. Paul Boyd at USACE for providing us with data from their respective agency.
Funding and support were provided by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Water Power Technology Office through Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC