Oise River

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Oise
Boats on the Oise, Charles-François Daubigny, 1865.
Origin	Hainaut
Mouth	Seine
Basin countries	France, Belgium
Length	302 km
Source elevation	309 m
Avg. discharge	110 m³/s
Basin area	17,000 km²

The Oise river is a right tributary of the Seine River. Its length is 302 km in Belgium and France. Its source is in the Belgian province Hainaut, south of the town Chimay. It crosses the border with France after approx. 20 km. It flows into the Seine in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, near Paris. Its main tributary is the river Aisne.

1 Places along the river
2 Navigation
3 Tributaries
- 3.1 Right bank
- 3.2 Left bank
4 See also

[edit] Places along the river

In France, the Oise flows through the following départements and towns:

Aisne: Hirson, Guise, Chauny
Oise (named after the river): Noyon, Compiègne, Creil
Val-d'Oise (named after the river): Auvers-sur-Oise, Pontoise, Cergy, Jouy-le-Moutier
Yvelines: Conflans-Sainte-Honorine

[edit] Navigation

The Oise has already played an important role in inland shipping over the past few centuries. The importance of the river as an inland waterway will increase greatly with the construction of the "Seine-Nord" waterway, a projected high capacity link between the Oise at Janville and the high capacity canal system in the North of France. Seine-Nord will replace the old Canal de Saint Quentin and the current Canal du Nord, the capacity of which is far below standards. When the new Seine Nord connection will be ready, it will allow large vessels to transport goods between the Seine river (and the Paris area) and the ports of Dunkerque, Antwerp and Rotterdam, or further into any part of Europe.

Even nowadays the Oise river is canalized to accommodate large vessels, but draught and headroom under bridges limit the capacity. The seven locks in the Oise (plus the two in the Oise lateral canal) allow vessels of 110 by 11,45 meters to navigate the entire river and the lateral canal to Pont l'Évêque where it joins the Canal du Nord. Further upstream from Pont l'Évêque, the lateral canal has a capacity which is limited to the Freycinet standard (38 by 5 meters).