Large dams in Bulgaria: infographic

I have been working on a new infographic since I came back from Bulgaria (family visit a week ago). The infographic is about the large dams in Bulgaria… nothing too fancy, nothing too specific. Just some numbers on when the large dams were built, how large are they (by height and by reservoir volume), and how do they compare to some of the largest dams worldwide.

I graduated as a civil engineer from a program focused on hydraulic engineering (UACEG) in 2007. So, at that time I was deeply interested in the design of dams. I can say that there was nothing more fascinating than visiting those large construction as part of our university summer field trips. The best part was the two-week internship, when we had the chance to work together with the staff and to take a part in the monitoring programs. My internship was at Belmeken – Sestrimo – Chaira and I still keep warm memories about these two weeks when I lived in the small village called Sestrimo. However, all this is in the past.

This infographic is only partially a result of my nostalgia, though. The main push was a conversation with some relatives, when I realized that I have forgotten simple things… even the names and locations of some of the dams, which I’ve visited, were hard to remember. So, I decided that it is a good idea to spend some time and to look at the numbers, to browse through some pictures, and to find some articles by one of my professors.

I used just a few sources of information:

• BUNCOLD: list with large dams in Bulgaria
• ICOLD: General synthesis and the classifications based on the register of dams (the classifications can be found in a menu on the left side)
• Data from fig. 3 from article “Язовирното строителство – фактор за устойчиво развитие”  by D. Toshev
• picture of Vacha dam from the site of NEK EAD “Dams and Cascades”

And here it is, I hope there are no mistakes, but if there are – don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I’ll fix them.