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
Physical characteristics
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
Length 46.373 km (28.815 mi) [1]
Basin features
Progression Rur→ Meuse→ North Sea
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)
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 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
2822112N.N.1.7 1.1 left43.8 27.2
2822114N.N.2.5 1.6 left43.6 27.1
2822116N.N.1.9 1.2 right43.7 27.2
282212Dänenbach5.7 3.54.784 1.847 left40.1 24.9Schmidtheim
2822132Zehnbach1.3 0.8 right39.5 24.5
282214Wisselbach3.5 2.22.314 0.893 left38.3 23.8Blankenheim-Wald
2822152Schäferbach1.7 1.1 right37.8 23.5Blankenheim-Wald
2822154N.N.0.9 0.6 right37.1 23.1
2822156Treisbach2.8 1.7 left36.2 22.5
282216Haubach3.4 2.17.057 2.725 right35.2 21.9
2822172Laufbach2.2 1.4 left34.9 21.7
2822174Lützertseifen1.5 0.9 right34.5 21.4
2822176Gelensiefen1.4 0.9 left33.3 20.7
2822178Wellenbach2.5 1.6 right31.7 19.7
282218Schleifbach3.9 2.43.961 1.529 left30.8 19.1Nettersheim
28222Genfbach9.6 6.020.102 7.761 right29.4 18.3Nettersheim
28224Gillesbach6.6 4.115.644 6.040 left23.2 14.4Urft
282252Kuttenbach5.3 3.34.488 1.733 left22.3 13.9Urft
28226Kallbach7.2 4.515.007 5.794 left18.4 11.4Kall
282272An den Fuchslöchern1.7 1.1 right16.8 10.4Kall
2822732Fahrenbach2.8 1.7 left16.7 10.4Kall
28227392Dränkensief1.6 1.0 left16.2 10.1
282274Mastermühle1.4 0.9 right16.2 10.1
282276Im Rödchen1.4 0.9 left15.2 9.4
282278Mühlenbach1.3 0.8 left13.1 8.1
2822792Seelbach0.9 0.6 right13.1 8.1Gemünd
28228Olef28.1 17.5196.073 75.704 left11.7 7.3Gemünd
2822912Lompig1.1 0.7 right10.5 6.5Gemünd
2822914Großer Scheuerbach1.1 0.7 right11.1 6.9Gemünd
2822918Braubach3.5 2.2 left11.3 7.0Gemünd
2822992Horrenbach1.8 1.1 left9.4 5.8Gemünd
28229936Laßbach2.3 1.4 left8.2 5.1
2822994Großer Böttenbach3.0 1.9 right7.1 4.4
28229952Morsbach2.3 1.4 left6.3 3.9
2822996Lorbach3.0 1.9 right4.9 3.0
28229972Amselbach2.1 1.3 right4.8 3.0
28229974Hohenbach1.6 1.0 right2.8 1.7
2822998Vom Walberhof2.5 1.6 left2.3 1.4
28229992Haftenbach0.6 0.4 left0.9 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

  • Hans Peter Schiffer: Das Urfttal in der Eifel. Landschaft, Natur, Geschichte. 2nd edn., LandpresseRegio, Weilerswist, 2006.
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