Sluice
hydraulic structure
A sluice ( SLOOS) is a water channel containing a sluice gate, a type of lock to manage water flow and water level. There are various types of sluice gates, including flap sluice gates and fan gates.
Sluices are used for channeling water toward a water mill, including for transporting logs from steep hillsides. Different terms are used regionally for sluices; the terms sluice, sluice gate, knife gate, and slide gate are used interchangeably in the water and wastewater control industry.
Etymology
The term "sluice" originates from the Middle English word scluse, which derived from the Old French escluse (modern French: écluse). This, in turn, came from the Late Latin exclusa, a shortening of aqua exclusa, meaning "excluded water" or "a shut-off water channel". The Latin exclusa is the feminine past participle of excludere ("to shut out, exclude"), from ex- ("out") and claudere ("to close").
Regional names
In the Somerset Levels, sluice gates are known as clyse or clyce.
Most of the inhabitants of Guyana refer to sluices as kokers.
The Sinhala people in Sri Lanka, who had an ancient civilization based on harvested rain water, refer to sluices as Sorowwa.
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