Kielder Water

Kielder Reservoir
Kielder Dam in 2007
Kielder Reservoir
Location	Northumberland
Coordinates	55°11′N 2°30′W / 55.183°N 2.500°W / 55.183; -2.500
Lake type	reservoir
Primary inflows	River North Tyne, Kielder Burn, Lewis Burn
Primary outflows	River North Tyne
Basin countries	England
Managing agency	Northumbrian Water
Built	1975–1981
First flooded	1982
Max. length	5.65 miles (9.09 km)
Max. width	2 miles (3.2 km)
Surface area	10.86 square kilometres (2,680 acres)
Water volume	200 billion litres (44×10^9 imp gal)
Shore length1	27.5 mi (44.3 km)
Surface elevation	184 m (604 ft)
Islands	1
Sections/sub-basins	Bakethin Reservoir
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Kielder Water is a large man-made reservoir in Northumberland in North East England. It is the largest artificial lake in the United Kingdom by capacity of water and it is surrounded by Kielder Forest, one of the biggest man-made woodlands in Europe. The scheme was planned in the late 1960s to satisfy an expected rise in demand for water to support a booming UK industrial economy. But the decline of traditional heavy industry, together with more water-efficient industrial processes and better control of water supply leakage, served to undermine the original justification for the reservoir and the government-funded project has been criticised as a white elephant.^[1]

Kielder Water is owned by Northumbrian Water, and holds 200 billion litres (44 billion gallons, or 0.2 cubic km), making it the largest artificial reservoir in the UK by capacity (Rutland Water is the largest by surface area). It has a 27.5-mile (44.3 km) shoreline, is 24.6 miles (39.6 km) from the sea,^[2] and has a maximum depth of 52 metres (170 ft).