The state of New York is working to remove hundreds of dams built on tributaries of the Hudson River estuary to improve habitat connectivity and reduce the risk of dam failure. The Dams and Sediment in the Hudson (DaSH) project brought together a collaborative team of scientists and stakeholders to better understand how sediment released by dam removals would affect the estuary and provide practical tools to regulators and practitioners. Along with this dam removal estimation tool, the project produced a series of factsheets and journal articles about their research on the amount and potential impacts of sediment trapped behind dams and the processes governing marsh growth in the estuary.

About this resource

The tool is designed to support dam removal planning for the Lower Hudson River valley. It provides a decision tree to classify dams into impoundment types and guides dam owners and decision makers through the steps to estimate the total volume and mass of sediment stored behind a dam, compare trapped sediment to background sediment supply from the watershed, and consider preliminary impacts of sediment release following dam removal.