Lac de Serre-Ponçon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Lac de Serre-Ponçon is a lake in southeast France; it is the largest artificial lake in Europe. The lake gathers the waters of the Durance and the Ubaye rivers, flowing down through the Hautes-Alpes and the Alpes du Sud to the Rhône River.

[edit] History

The lake was created to control water flow after disastrous floods caused severe damage and loss of life in 1843 and 1856. First proposed in 1895, construction started in 1955 and was completed by 1961.

During construction of the lake, approximately 3 million m³ of material was moved. The dam was constructed and the valley slowly became a lake, flooding some villages in the process. This flooding is the subject of Jean Giono's movie "l'eau vive", starring Guy Beart.

[edit] Characteristics

The waters are dammed by the Barrage de Serre-Ponçon, a 123 m high earth core dam. The lake is 20 km long and has a maximum width of 3 km, in area it is around 28 km² and holds 1.2 km³ of water.

As well as water control, sixteen hydroelectric plants use the water and the lake provides irrigation to 1,500 km² of land.

Neighboring communes: