Urft (river)

Urft

The Urft near Gemünd in the Urft Reservoir at low water
Location In the North Eifel; Euskirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia  Germany
Reference no. DE: 2822
Basin features
Main source In the North Eifel near Schmidtheim
ca. 581 m above sea level (NHN)
50°25′05″N 6°30′12″E / 50.41806°N 6.503361°E / 50.41806; 6.503361Coordinates: 50°25′05″N 6°30′12″E / 50.41806°N 6.503361°E / 50.41806; 6.503361
River mouth Near Rurberg into the Rur / in the upper basin of the Rur Dam
279.6 m above sea level (NHN)
50°36′08″N 6°25′07″E / 50.602306°N 6.418639°E / 50.602306; 6.418639
Progression Rur → Meuse → Hollands Diep → North Sea
River system Rhine
Basin size 372.564 km2 (143.848 sq mi) [1]
Tributaries
  • Left:
    Olef
    (for this and others see below)
  • Right:
    Genfbach
    (for this and others see below)
Physical characteristics
Length 46.373 km (28.815 mi) [1]

The Rur inter alia with the courses of the Urft, Inde, Merzbach and Wurm
Urft Reservoir basin at low water and the Victor Neels Bridge, Urft and, on the horizon, the tower of the Vogelsang Fortress
Urft Reservoir and immediately below it the upper basin of the Rur Dam

The Urft is a 46.4-kilometre-long (28.8 mi) right-hand tributary of the Rur in the county of Euskirchen in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.[1] It flows through the village of Urft in the municipality of Kall. The Urft rises in the North Eifel region of the Eifel Mountains.

Origin of the name

The name of the Urft is derived from Urd-apa.[2] The origin of the word Urd is unknown, but apa is Celtic and means "stream".[2] In 1075, the Urft was called the Urdefa, in 1419 the Orfft and, in 1503, the Oyrfft.[2] The village of Urft takes its name from the river.[2]

Course

The Urft rises in the North Eifel in the High Fens-Eifel Nature Park. Its source is in the Dahlem Forest (Dahlemer Wald), 3.8 km (2.4 mi) west of the Dahlem village of Schmidtheim and 2.3 km (1.4 mi) (both as the crow flies) northwest of Dahlemer Binz Airfield.

The Urft initially flows through Schmidtheim. From there it is accompanied by the Eifel Line and joined by the Dänenbach stream. It then flows through the village of Blankenheim-Wald, where it collects the Wisselbach and is crossed by the B 258 federal highway. In the next section it is joined by more streams including the Treisbach, the Laufbach and the Haubach. At Steinrütsch, which lies in the parish of Nettersheim and where there are the remains of a Roman burgus and castellum (Kleinkastell), it is joined by the Wellenbach in Urft and in Nettersheim the Genfbach. Next the river runs parallel to the Roman Eifel Aqueduct, which begins at the old Gronrecht Mill (Gronrechtsmühle) near the Grüner Pütz, flows through Urft, where it meets the Gillesbach and, below the village, the Kuttenbach. After that the Urft flows through Sötenich and Kall, where it leaves both the Eifel Line and the Eifel Aqueduct and collects the Kallbach, before running along the Olef Valley Railway and through Anstois. Next it passes through Gemünd, where the Olef joins and where the B 265 and B 266 cross the Urft in the village. It then leaves the railway and flows through Malsbenden.

Next the Urft flows into the Urft Reservoir, which channels its waters usually into a tunnel - the Kermeter Gallery - through the Kermeter ridge north of the reservoir and through the turbines of the Heimbach Power Station with its outflow into the compensating basin of the Heimbach Dam and thus eventually into the River Rur. Through this artificial outflow tunnel the mouth of the Urft is near the Heimbach village of Hasenfeld at Rur 111.1 km (69.0 mi).[1] Before the construction of the Urft Dam, the river emptied in a natural way above the Simmerath village of Rurberg roughly at Rur 123.5 km (76.7 mi) into the Rur.[1] Since the second expansion stage of the Rur Reservoir in 1959 the water from the Obersee on the Rur Dam impounds the old lower reaches of the Urft (near its confluence) on the downstream side of the Urft Dam to a depth of around 12 metres (39 ft). From there the reservoir waters flow, at high water, over the spillway of the Urft Dam.[3]

Catchment area and tributaries

The catchment area of the Urft covers 372.564 km2 (143.85 sq mi),[1] and drains via the Rur, Meuse and Hollands Diep into the North Sea.

Tributaries of the Urft[4]
GKZ Name Length Catchment Direction Confluence Confluence
km mi km2 sqmi km mi location
2822112 N.N. 1.7 1.1 left 43.8 27.2
2822114 N.N. 2.5 1.6 left 43.6 27.1
2822116 N.N. 1.9 1.2 right 43.7 27.2
282212 Dänenbach 5.7 3.5 4.784 1.847 left 40.1 24.9 Schmidtheim
2822132 Zehnbach 1.3 0.8 right 39.5 24.5
282214 Wisselbach 3.5 2.2 2.314 0.893 left 38.3 23.8 Blankenheim-Wald
2822152 Schäferbach 1.7 1.1 right 37.8 23.5 Blankenheim-Wald
2822154 N.N. 0.9 0.6 right 37.1 23.1
2822156 Treisbach 2.8 1.7 left 36.2 22.5
282216 Haubach 3.4 2.1 7.057 2.725 right 35.2 21.9
2822172 Laufbach 2.2 1.4 left 34.9 21.7
2822174 Lützertseifen 1.5 0.9 right 34.5 21.4
2822176 Gelensiefen 1.4 0.9 left 33.3 20.7
2822178 Wellenbach 2.5 1.6 right 31.7 19.7
282218 Schleifbach 3.9 2.4 3.961 1.529 left 30.8 19.1 Nettersheim
28222 Genfbach 9.6 6.0 20.102 7.761 right 29.4 18.3 Nettersheim
28224 Gillesbach 6.6 4.1 15.644 6.040 left 23.2 14.4 Urft
282252 Kuttenbach 5.3 3.3 4.488 1.733 left 22.3 13.9 Urft
28226 Kallbach 7.2 4.5 15.007 5.794 left 18.4 11.4 Kall
282272 An den Fuchslöchern 1.7 1.1 right 16.8 10.4 Kall
2822732 Fahrenbach 2.8 1.7 left 16.7 10.4 Kall
28227392 Dränkensief 1.6 1.0 left 16.2 10.1
282274 Mastermühle 1.4 0.9 right 16.2 10.1
282276 Im Rödchen 1.4 0.9 left 15.2 9.4
282278 Mühlenbach 1.3 0.8 left 13.1 8.1
2822792 Seelbach 0.9 0.6 right 13.1 8.1 Gemünd
28228 Olef 28.1 17.5 196.073 75.704 left 11.7 7.3 Gemünd
2822912 Lompig 1.1 0.7 right 10.5 6.5 Gemünd
2822914 Großer Scheuerbach 1.1 0.7 right 11.1 6.9 Gemünd
2822918 Braubach 3.5 2.2 left 11.3 7.0 Gemünd
2822992 Horrenbach 1.8 1.1 left 9.4 5.8 Gemünd
28229936 Laßbach 2.3 1.4 left 8.2 5.1
2822994 Großer Böttenbach 3.0 1.9 right 7.1 4.4
28229952 Morsbach 2.3 1.4 left 6.3 3.9
2822996 Lorbach 3.0 1.9 right 4.9 3.0
28229972 Amselbach 2.1 1.3 right 4.8 3.0
28229974 Hohenbach 1.6 1.0 right 2.8 1.7
2822998 Vom Walberhof 2.5 1.6 left 2.3 1.4
28229992 Haftenbach 0.6 0.4 left 0.9 0.6

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Topographic Information Management, Cologne - NRW GEObasis Division (info)
  2. 1 2 3 4 Hans Peter Schiffer: Das Urfttal in der Eifel. Landschaft, Natur, Geschichte. 2006. p. 6.
  3. ↑ For more on the confluence of the Urft see Matthias Kufeld, Joachim Lange, Bernd Hausmann. "Das Einzugsgebiet der Rur" (pdf; 10.54 MB) (in German). pp. 57 under (from "Das Wasser aus der Urfttalsperre…"). Retrieved 15 Feb 2014.
  4. ↑ Hydrographic Directory of the NRW State Office for Nature, the Environment and Consumer Protection (Gewässerverzeichnis des Landesamtes für Natur, Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz NRW 2010) (xls; 4.67 MB)

Literature

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