List of reservoirs by surface area
Below are the reservoirs in the world with a surface area exceeding. Reservoirs can be formed conventionally, by damming the outlet of a canyon or valley to form a lake; the largest of this type is Ghana's Lake Volta, with a water surface of. Reservoirs can also be formed by damming the outlets of natural lakes to regulate water levels, such as ones at Uganda's Owen Falls Dam and Russia's Irkutsk Dam ; they are included here and indicated with a light blue cell background.
Large reservoir area does not necessarily coincide with large volume, as reservoirs with a large area tend to be shallow, such as at Suriname's Brokopondo Reservoir, with an average depth of just. In comparison, Canada's Kinbasket Lake, with an average depth of, has a volume 25 percent greater – but with a surface area of just, does not meet the cutoff for inclusion in this list.