| Upper Rhine (Oberrhein,Rhin Supérieur) | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Upper Rhine nearIffezheim | |
 Sections of the Rhine: Upper Rhine | |
| Location | |
| Country | Germany |
| States | Baden-Württemberg,Hesse,Rhineland-Palatine |
| Country | France |
| Region Departments | Grand-Est Bas-Rhin,Haut-Rhin |
| Country Canton | Switzerland Basel-Stadt |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | |
| • location | Rhine knee atBasel, Switzerland, continuation of theHigh Rhine |
| • coordinates | 47°33′37″N7°35′23″E / 47.560148°N 7.589726°E /47.560148; 7.589726 |
| • elevation | 252 m |
| Mouth | |
• location | Bingen am Rhein, confluence with theNahe, continues asMiddle Rhine |
• coordinates | 49°58′11″N7°53′21″E / 49.96972°N 7.88917°E /49.96972; 7.88917 |
• elevation | 89 m |
| Length | 360 km (220 mi) |
| Basin size | 185,000 km2 |
| Basin features | |
| Tributaries | |
| • left | Birsig,Ill,Lauter,Moder,Nahe |
| • right | Acher,Alb,Elz,Kander,Kinzig,Main,Murg,Neckar,Pfinz,Queich,Rench,Sauer,Selz,Wiese |
Upper Rhine (German:Oberrhein[ˈoːbɐˌʁaɪn]ⓘ;French:Rhin Supérieur is the section of theRhine between theMiddle Bridge inBasel,Switzerland, and theRhine knee inBingen,Germany. Representing kilometres 167 to 529 of the river[1][a] it is surrounded by theUpper Rhine Plain (Oberrheinische Tiefebene). Most of its upper section marks theFrance–Germany border.
The Upper Rhine is one of four sections of the river betweenLake Constance and the North Sea, and is succeeded downstream by theMiddle Rhine andLower Rhine; only theHigh Rhine andAlpine Rhine lie above it. The countries and states along the Upper Rhine are Switzerland,France (Alsace) and the German states ofBaden-Württemberg,Rhineland-Palatinate andHesse. The largest cities along the river are Basel,Mulhouse,Strasbourg,Karlsruhe,Mannheim,Ludwigshafen andMainz.
The Upper Rhine wasstraightened between 1817 and 1876 byJohann Gottfried Tulla and madenavigable between 1928 and 1977. TheTreaty of Versailles allows France to use the Upper Rhine forhydroelectricity in theGrand Canal d'Alsace.
On the left bank are the French region of Alsace and the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate; on the right bank are the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Hesse. The first few kilometres are in the Swiss city of Basel.
Around 35 million years ago, arift valley of about 300 kilometres (190 mi) long and 50 kilometres (31 mi) wide came into being between the present cities of Basel andFrankfurt. This was due to tensile stresses in theEarth's crust andmantle, which resulted in lowering the earth's surface. The moat has been partially filled up again bysedimentation. On the edges we find mountain ridges, the so-called "rift flanks". On the eastern side, they are theBlack Forest andOdenwald mountains, in the west theVosges andPalatinate Forest. During theTertiary, the High Rhine continued west from Basel and flowed via theDoubs and theSaône, into theRhône. The rift diverted the Rhine into the newly formedUpper Rhine Valley.
TheRhine knee at Basel marks the transition from the High Rhine to the Upper Rhine with a change of direction from West to North and a change of landscape from the relatively small-chamber high-Rhinecuesta landscape to the wide rift zone of the Upper Rhine Rift Valley. The two largest tributaries come from the right: theNeckar inMannheim, theMain across fromMainz. In the northwest corner of the Upper Rhine Valley, at Rhine-kilometre 529.1, near Bingen, where theNahe flows into the Rhine, the Rhine flows into a gorge in theRhenish Massif and thereby changes into theMiddle Rhine.[3]
Tributaries are listed in direction of flow (bottom to top), with the nearest settlement to theirconfluence given in brackets.
Left tributaties:
Right tributaries:
 | You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in German. (March 2012)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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| You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in French. (March 2012)Click [show] for important translation instructions. Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Région métropolitaine trinationale du Rhin supérieur]]; see its history for attribution.{{Translated|fr|Région métropolitaine trinationale du Rhin supérieur}} to thetalk page. |
The Upper Rhine tri-national region (French:Région Métropolitaine Trinationale du Rhin Supérieur, German:Trinationale Metropolregion Oberrhein) is aEuroregion that covers the border areas of the Upper Rhine (the northern part of the Upper Rhine valley and the Palatinate are not included as they are not border areas) and parts of the High Rhine. As the name suggests, it is a tri-national region comprising parts of France, Germany and Switzerland. The regionalUpper Rhine Conference is a framework for future political and administrative cooperation in the area.
Thetripoint between France, Germany and Switzerland, calledDreiländereck, lies within the uppermost portion of the Upper Rhine. Amonument in Basel, known as thePylon, is located 160 m (520 ft) southeast of the actual tripoint.
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In 1685,Louis XIV started a project to move the Upper Rhine, change its course and drain thefloodplain, in order to gain land. By 1840, the river had been moved up to 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) to the east, taking territory away from Baden. Around 1790, large parts of the Rhine Valley were deforested, creating arable land, fields and pasture to feed the population. The Upper Rhine wasstraightened between 1817 and 1876 byJohann Gottfried Tulla and changed from a relatively sluggishmeandering river with major and many smaller branches into a fast flowing stream flanked by embankments. The length of the Upper Rhine was reduced by 81 kilometres (50 mi). Some cut-off river arms and ox-bows remain; they are typically called the 'Old Rhine' (German:Altrhein) orGießen (similar to theOld Rhine (Alter Rhein) in theAlpine Rhine Valley, where the Rhine was also straightened).
The Rhine between Basel andIffezheim is almost entirely canalised. On a stretch of 180 kilometres (110 mi), there are 10dams, provided withhydropower stations andlocks. Between Basel andBreisach, the old river bed carries hardly any water; almost all water is diverted through theGrand Canal d'Alsace on the French side, to ensure safe shipping and hydropower generation around the clock. Only when there is a large supply of water, then the old river bed will receive more water than the canal. France gained the right to do this in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles; the right applies to the segment between Basel andNeuburgweier/Lauterbourg, where the Rhine forms the border between France and Germany.
The straightening (1817–76) and channeling (1928–77) reduced thewater table by up to 16 metres (52 ft) and thus had a negative effect onflora andfauna.Gravel is also missing from the river, due to the dams. This has caused erosion below the dam at Iffezheim. To counter this, 173,000 cubic metres (6,100,000 cu ft) per year of a mixture of sand and gravel with an average grain diameter of 20 millimetres (0.79 in) (corresponding to the local sediment transport capacity) has been dumped into the river, since 1978, using two motorized barges.
The Upper Rhine plays a key role inflood control on the Middle andLower Rhine. As a result of the straightening of the Upper Rhine,floods from theAlps now reach the Middle Rhine much faster than in the past. Thus, the risk of such a peak coinciding with a flood peak of Neckar,Moselle or Main has increased. About 123 square kilometres (47 sq mi) of floodplain have been lost. Authorities in riparian states of France,Baden-Württemberg andRhineland-Palatinate have launched theIntegrated Rhine Programme, a framework for designating water retention areas. to combat downstream flooding. A French-German treaty was concluded in 1982, in which the parties agreed to restore the retention capacity on the stretch below Iffezheim to the level it had before the area was developed.
This means:For the stretch between Iffezheim and the mouth of the Neckar, attenuation of the apex of a 200-year flood (i.e. a flood that statistically occurs once in 200 years) of the Rhine to a discharge of 5,000 cubic metres per second (180,000 cu ft/s) at the Maxau gauge station, that is, a reduction from 5,700 cubic metres per second (200,000 cu ft/s) to 5,000 cubic metres per second (180,000 cu ft/s).
For this purpose the following measures are planned and partially implemented:
The effectiveness of the flood protection measures was verified using a computer model. The State Institute for the Environment, Nature Protection and Measurements in Baden-Württemberg carried out forecast calculations with the help of a mathematical "synoptic flood progression model". The analysis of the calculations and the evaluation of the results were made on the basis of the requirements and methods set by the international Flood Study Commission for the Rhine. The implementation of the proposed flood control measures on the Upper Rhine can prevent the occurrence of a 200-year-flood between Iffezheim and Bingen, with an overall economic loss estimated at around 6.2 billion euros.
| Designations | |
|---|---|
| Official name | Oberrhein |
| Designated | 28 August 2008 |
| Reference no. | 1809[4] |
| Official name | Rhin Supérieur |
| Designated | 5 September 2008 |
| Reference no. | 1810[5] |
The floodplains between Mainz and Bingen are important for nature conservation. In this section, the so-calledIsland Rhine, there are manynature reserves andbird sanctuaries.
48°57′N8°16′E / 48.950°N 8.267°E /48.950; 8.267
| International | |
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| National | |
