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Tag: water transfer

Water transfer canals in Brazil

by Timothy Whitehead on Mar.13, 2017, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA

We recently came across this story about a water transfer project in Brazil. Since we have previously had a look at China’s North-South water transfer project, we thought it might be interesting to have a look at Brazil’s project in Google Earth. It was difficult to find the location, but we eventually found this Wikipedia page that has a map. We have since located and traced out the canals that have been built so far. In many places there is no recent imagery and their route can only be seen in the latest Landsat/Sentinel global mosaic in ‘historical imagery’.

The Brazil water transfer project consists of two separate canals carrying water from the São Francisco River to the four north-eastern states of Brazil. There are several dams along the route of the canal which have been specially constructed as part of the project. The two main canals are each around 200 km long. There are also tunnels under roads, bridges over valleys and in one place an 18 km tunnel through a hill. The project has reportedly cost around US$ 2.5 billion so far. The region the water is serving is known as Sertão and is a naturally arid region.


The canal routes. Red: canals. Blue: river bed. Yellow: possible future extension.

Keep in mind that once the water is transported via the canals, it flows into the local rivers and can be utilised by towns downstream of the end of the canal all the way to the coast.


A tunnel under a village.


One of the many dams.

before
after

Play ‘spot the difference’. 2001 vs 2016. If you know where to look you can spot both canals. See map above for clues.

To find the canals in Google Earth download this KML file.

The post Water transfer canals in Brazil appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

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