European watershed

Coordinates: 61°28′N 37°46′E / 61.467°N 37.767°E / 61.467; 37.767
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
See also: Watershed (disambiguation)
Main European drainage divides (red lines) separating catchments (green regions).

The main European watershed is the drainage divide ("watershed") which separates the basins of the rivers that empty into the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea from those that feed the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea. It stretches from the tip of the Iberian Peninsula at Gibraltar in the southwest to the endorheic basin of the Caspian Sea in Russia in the northeast.

Course

Atlantic—Mediterranean

Atlantic—Mediterranean watershed marker between Belfort and Mulhouse on the A36 autoroute

The Watershed runs northwards through

Rhone in the east, marked by the Cévennes mountain range between the sources of the Allier and Ardèche tributaries. The European watershed meets the Atlantic-North Sea Continental Divide at the triple point between the Atlantic, North Sea and Mediterranean Sea at Mount Piémont in Northeast France.[6]

At the

Furkapass and joining the Alpine divide near the Witenwasserenstock, the triple watershed of the Rhone, Rhine and Po rivers. East of here it crosses the Gotthard Pass and runs along the Adula Alps until it reaches the triple point of the Rhine, Po and Danube basins at the "roof of Europe" near Piz Lunghin west of the Maloja Pass.[7]

Atlantic—Black Sea

Klepáč – one of six places in Europe where three watersheds meet
Rhine–Danube watershed marker near Weitnau, Germany
European watershed marker (Lviv Oblast, 2009)

The divide continues northwards along the

Tyrol and Vorarlberg. It reaches Bavaria, Germany, via the crest of the Allgäu Alps and leaves the High Alps at the Adelegg range near Kempten.[7]

Within the Alpine foothills it runs north of the Schussen catchment area of Lake Constance towards the sources of the Brigach and Breg headwaters of the Danube in the Black Forest. It then follows the main ridge of the Swabian and Franconian Jura with the crossing of the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal northeastwards up to the Fichtel Mountains and southeastwards along the Bohemian Forest, forming the border between Germany and the Austrian Mühlviertel and Waldviertel regions with the Czech Republic, where the large Bohemian basin is drained by the Elbe River.[8][9] It again turns northeastwards along the Javořice Highlands to the Králický Sněžník Mountains of the Eastern Sudetes at the border with Poland, where the triple point of the Orlice, Elbe (North Sea); Morava, Danube (Black Sea); and Eastern Neisse, Oder (Baltic Sea) is located at the peak of Klepáč (Trójmorski Wierch). At this point, the European Watershed connects to the North Sea–Baltic Sea Continental Divide.[10]

The Watershed continues in an eastern direction along the

Caspian drainage basin in the Sychyovsky District, near the midpoint between the Western Russian cities of Smolensk and Tver.[12]

Characteristics

The watershed is not a clearly defined

divide
.

For example,

Karst and even capture the upper Danube and its surface tributaries.[13] It is expected that the Danube's upper course will one day disappear entirely in favour of the Rhine ("stream capture
").

See also

61°28′N 37°46′E / 61.467°N 37.767°E / 61.467; 37.767

References

  1. ^ "IDE/Geoportal - CHG". Confederacion Hidrografica del Guadalquivir (Drainage basin for the Guadalquivir river). Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  2. ^ "Confederación Hidrográfica del Segura". www.chsegura.es (Map of the drainage basin for the Segura River). Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  3. ^ "Descarga de Datos y Cartografía". Confederacion Hidrografica del Jucar (Map of the drainage basin for the Jucar River). Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  4. ^ "Sitebro". Confederacion Hidrografica Ebro (Map of the drainage basin for the River Ebro). Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  5. ^ "Rivers in Spain". www.iberianature.com. Retrieved 12 August 2017.
  6. ^ "Sandre - Portail national d'accès aux référentiels sur l'eau". www.sandre.eaufrance.fr (Map of the drainage basins in France in the 'Zone Hydrographique' dateset). Archived from the original on 2011-03-07. Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  7. ^ a b UFAM, Bundesamt für Umwelt BAFU. "Bundesamt für Umwelt - Startseite". www.bafu.admin.ch (Drainage basins in Switzerland in the map 'EZGG.sqlite') (in German). Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  8. ^ "Umwelt-Daten und -Karten Online". Landesanstalt für Umwelt Baden-Württemberg (Drainage basins in Baden-Würrtemberg in the map 'Basiseinzugsgebiet (AWGN)_polygon.shp'). Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  9. ^ "Bayerisches Landesamt für Umwelt - LfU Bayern". lfu.bayern.de (Drainage basins in Bavaria in the map 'EZG25_01_2016_by.shp') (in German). Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  10. ^ "VÚV T.G.Masaryka - Oddělení GIS - O projektu DIBAVOD". Digitální báze vodohospodářských dat (Drainage basins in Czech Republic). Retrieved 2021-02-08.
  11. ^ "Otwarte Dane" (Drainage basins in Poland in the map 'Wektorowe warstwy tematyczne aPGW').
  12. ^ "Interactive Database of the World's River Basins - Home". Interactive Database of the World's River Basins (Main drainage basins of the world's rivers). UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate. Archived from the original on 2021-01-30. Retrieved 2021-02-09.
  13. ^ H. Hötzl: Origin of the Danube-Aach system. In: Environmental Geology. volume 27, No. 2, 1996, p. 87–96. doi:10.1007/BF01061676

External links

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