The Nierji Dam is an embankment dam

Embankment dam

An embankment dam is a massive artificial water barrier. It is typically created by the emplacement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil, sand, clay and/or rock. It has a semi-permanent waterproof natural covering for its surface, and a dense, waterproof...

 on the Nen River

Nen River

Nen River or Nenjiang , or Nonni is a river in Northeast China. The Nen River flows through the northern part of Heilongjiang Province and the northeastern section of Inner Mongolia, some parts of the river forming the border between the two regions...

 just north of Morin Dawa

Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner

Morin Dawa Daur Autonomous Banner is one of three autonomous banners in Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China, created for the Daur people. It lies on the Nen River, borders Heilongjiang province to the east, south, and southwest, and is under the administration of Hulunbuir City.-References:*...

 and on the border of Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...

 and Heilongjiang Province, China. The dam was constructed between 2001 and 2006 for several purposes to include hydroelectric power generation, flood control, navigation

Navigability

A body of water, such as a river, canal or lake, is navigable if it is deep, wide and slow enough for a vessel to pass. Preferably there are few obstructions such as rocks or trees to avoid. Bridges must have sufficient clearance. High water speed may make a channel unnavigable. Waters may be...

 and water supply.

Design

The dam is a rock-fill type and 41.5 m (136 ft) tall at its highest point. The total length of the dam is 7180 m (23,556 ft) which includes the 1676 m (5,499 ft) long main dam with an asphalt core. The dam creates a reservoir

Reservoir

A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...

 with a capacity of 8610000000 cubic metre and sits at the head of a 66400 km² (25,637 sq mi) catchment area

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

. The dam's spillway consists of 11 floodgates and has a maximum discharge capacity of 20300 m3/s. The dam's power station contains four 62.5 MW Kaplan turbine

Kaplan turbine

The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by the Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to achieve efficiency over a wide range of flow and...

-generators for a total installed capacity of 250 MW.