Most of dams and reservoirs were made from natural materials, such as soil, sand and gravel. This type of hydraulic structure has the danger of collapse by overflow during a flood. Freeboard is the vertical distance between the crest of the dam and the full supply level in the reservoir. It must be sufficient to prevent overtopping from over flow. Thus, freeboard determination involves engineering judgment, statistical analysis, and consideration of the damage that would result from the overtopping of a hydraulic structure. This study attempts to calculate the wave height in dam, which is needed for the determination of the freeboard of the dam. Chung-ju dam is selected as the study area. Using the empirical formulas, the wave heights in dam were calculated, and the results were compared with those by the SWAN model, which is a typical wave model. The difference between the calculated results from the empirical formulas and those by the SWAN model is considerably large. This is because empirical equations consider only fetch or fetch and wind velocity, while the SWAN model considers depth and topography data as well.