The Soyang Dam, also referred to as the Soyanggang 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 Soyang River

Soyang River

Soyang River is a river of South Korea. It is a river of the Han River system....

, 10 km (6 mi) northeast of Chuncheon

Chuncheon

Chuncheon is the capital of Gangwon Province, South Korea. The city lies in the northeast of the country, located in a basin formed by the Soyang River and Han River. There are some large lakes around the city, most notably Lake Soyang and Lake Uiam...

 in Gangwon-do Province

Gangwon-do (South Korea)

Gangwon-do is a province of South Korea, with its capital at Chuncheon. Before the division of Korea in 1945, Gangwon and its North Korean neighbour Kangwŏn formed a single province.-History:...

, South Korea. The purpose of the dam is flood control

Flood control

In communications, flood control is a feature of many communication protocols designed to prevent overwhelming of a destination receiver. Such controls can be implemented either in software or in hardware, and will often request that the message be resent after the receiver has finished...

, water supply and hydroelectric power generation. Construction on the dam began in 1967 and was complete in 1973. The 123 m (404 ft) tall dam withholds a reservoir of 2900000000 cubic metre and supplies water to a 200 MW power station.