Check dams are transverse structures built across stream-beds and gullies and made of stones, gabions, masonry, concrete, or logs. They are designed mainly to control water and sediment flows, conserve soil and improve land. Throughout the world, national, regional and local governments have spent in the past, and still currently spend, important funds for basin scale erosion-control schemes (maintenance and new implementations). These projects focus on the control of sediment supply to (i) the stream fans and valley rivers for flood protection, (ii) dam reservoirs for water storage, and basically, (iii) for the mere mountain soil conservation and agriculture protection. The stabilization role of these structures is well known, i.e. they durably constrain the stream-bed through the creation of vertical and planar fixed points.

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