Alme (river)

Almeaue with elves, community Borchen

The Alme is approximately 59.1 kilometers long, left or southern tributary of the lip in North Rhine -Westphalia, Germany.

• 4.1 General
• 4.2 Almehochwasser 1965
• 4.3 Almehochwasser 2007

Geography

Headwaters

The headwaters of the Alme is located in the Upper Sauerland district in the north of Brilon heights or on the northern edge of the plateau Brilon, consisting of highly rugged limestone with a thickness of 600-1400 m. Aboveground rivers to seep into crevices and thereby dissolve the lime, which in the underground of the plateau into large cavities. In the village of Brilon Alme the underground running water at the lowest point ( 320-322 m above sea level. NN ) in the form of overflow sources rises to the surface again. The main source is a karst spring pool with a diameter of about 30 m and an average bed of 400 l / s

The Alme has 104 outlets source, with different water temperatures, but remain almost constant throughout the year. Coldest source is the source 1 to 8.5 ° C, the warmest is the source 104 with 11.3 ° C. The total discharge of all the sources is 300 to 1370 l / s, where the average bed at about 400 l / s.

Course

From the village Alme, specifically from Oberalme, predominantly running in the northern directions Alme flows just below its origin by Niederalme, which is on the Almetalbahn (some still used for freight transport and from a heritage railway ), and where the highway crosses 480. Then it runs along the railway line by Harth with his district ringed stone, Siddinghausen and wines by Buren. Thereafter, it flows over Brenken, after which they passed under the Federal Highway 44, and Ahden, Wewelsburg castle with the same name and Niederntudorf by elves.

After dortigem passing under the motorway 33, from which it is then bridged twice, the Alme the Altenau takes at Borchen on and flows over Wewer what they initially again the Federal Highway 33, and then passes under the highway 64 and past the Paderborn core city runs. Then it crosses under the highway 1 before it opens in Paderborn- Neuhaus Castle in the lip.

Mouth

A few kilometers further north leads the district of Paderborn in the Alme Schloss Neuhaus in the eastern Rhine tributary lip.

The Alme is significantly longer than the lip up to this point to its mouth, where it leads but usually a little less water (4.6 m / s vs. 6.1 m / s). This is also related that her abgraben in the middle reaches well below the opening into Heder and in the lower reaches just above the opening into the lip Paderborn ( only 4.2 m / s, ie about 70% of the lip water ) water

• → See also: Diagram of the drains in the lip system and section # water management

Inflows

Among the tributaries of the Alme include ( downriver considered ):

• Cute (from right)

• Gosse (river) (left )
• Afte (from right)
• Altenau ( from the right)
• Harlebach (from left)

Towns

The villages on the Alme are ( downriver considered ):

• Alme ( with top and Niederalme )
• Harth with the district ringed stone
• Siddinghausen
• Wines
• Buren
• Brenken
• Ahden
• Wewelsburg

• Niederntudorf
• Alfs
• Borchen
• Wewer
• Paderborn
• Elsen
• Schloss Neuhaus

Biology

The Alme is in much of a karst water with alkaline water, which is rich in micro-organisms, which represent the lowest link in the food chain. An electric test fishing fishing Dezernats of the Regional Council Detmold and the Wewelsburg Fisheries Association in 1986, it was found that the Alme at Wewelsburg the habitat for brook trout, rainbow trout, grayling, ide, chub, roach, tench, eel, minnow, stickleback, loach, gudgeon, bullhead and brown bullhead forms. All of these fish there their natural occurrence, the brook trout is in addition to natural increase introduced by statutory restocking regularly as a seedling in the river.

In many parts of the banks are planted with willows that secure the bank protection and are regularly maintained by bird and conservationists with the support of local fishing clubs.

Reserves

The Almetal is designated as conservation area "Forests and sources of Almetals " with a size of 473 ha.

In addition, there are two nature reserves:

• The nature reserve " Almetal ", a 3 km long section of the valley in the upper river basin between the place Niederalme in Brilon and the settlement Mult heads hammer at Buren with a size of 41.5 ha, and
• The nature reserve " Almehänge at Ahden and Wewelsburg ", five non- contiguous areas in the two villages with a total area of ​​approximately 19 ha

Water management

Generally

The average discharge amount of Alme is 4.6 m³ / s In the summer months, but pursuant to the karstic subsurface of Almeabschnitt between Bueren - Ahden and Borchen ( Altenau- junction ) temporarily dry. The Alme falls in Niederntudorf then dry when the river discharge in Buren and wines is altogether less than 1.5 m³ / s. The average low-water runoff during dry periods is due to this geological phenomenon that occurs with only 0.3 m³ / s When, after extensive sealing measures to Ponoren (at the Alme generally referred to as Schwalglöcher ) in 1895 in the nearby village of Geseke a source flashy led less water, was determined by Färbversuche that the above Brenken seepage water in Geseke comes to light again during the sink-holes with the source of Heder in about 8 km north situated Salzkotten- Upsprunge are south of Brenken in conjunction. This result was confirmed in 2003.

Another special feature is the in the valley bottoms of the Alme forming Quellschwemmkegel and Quick Jump.

Almehochwasser 1965

In July 1965, an extraordinary flood in the Alme Valley, which went down in history as a local flood of the century under the name " Henry Flood" and its level was not surpassed until 2007 happened. After torrential rains on 15, 16 and 17 July cellars were flooded. In Wewelsburg collapsed a bridge, pioneers of the Bundeswehr had to be used. Streets turned into rivers, sidewalks were flooded, the train and bus transport had to be stopped.

As a result of the floods, which also extended to the tributaries of the Alme and lip Upper lip of the Water Board was established with the aim to prevent such disasters through the creation of flood retention basin ( HRB) in the future. Thus, at its inflow Altenau the HRB Husen - Dalheim and at the inflow Sauer Sudheim the HRB and HRB Ebbinghausen emerged.

Almehochwasser 2007

On 22 August 2007, entered the territory of the former district Alme Buren on the shore after sometimes up to 70 liters of rain per square meter fell in one night. Here, the old record level of 1965 in the village of wines was exceeded by 23 cm. The flow reached 30 m partially about ten times the normal width. In other villages, the level remained below the. Though the flood of 1965 was far less dramatic by the measures taken since 1965, had to close earlier Buren some schools, sometimes the station road was passable only by truck. 220 firefighters of the volunteer fire department of the city boundaries were used also ten forces of THW, other forces of DLRG, the DRC and the Malteser were in use to pump out the basement and with sandbags to protect against the water deeper houses.