Kemijoki
The Kemi [ kɛmijɔki ] is 550 kilometers, the longest river in Finland. It flows through the Finnish part of Lapland and flows into the Baltic.
The Kemi begins at Kemihaara above the confluence of the three rivers source Naltiohaara, Keskihaara and Kemihaara in the community Savukoski in Eastern Lapland. From there it flows to the southwest through the landscape Lapland and takes several inflows. In Savukoski the Tenniöjoki flows into the Kemi. In Pelkosenniemi Kemijoki takes the Vuotos and Kitinen who has recently united with the Luiro on. In the city of Kuusamo Kuusamo, the river flows through the lake. At the confluence of the Kemi and its largest tributary, the Ounasjoki, is the provincial capital of Lapland Rovaniemi. In the port city of Kemi Kemijoki in the Bothnian Bay, the northernmost part of the Gulf of Bothnia opens. The size of the catchment area is 51 127 square kilometers and thus comprises the bulk of Finnish Lapland. A smaller part of the catchment area is located on the Russian and Norwegian side. Especially at its lower reaches of Kemi is very wide and extends partly seeartig. The mean river discharge at the river mouth is 556 m³ / s
After the Second World War the previously untreated Kemi for the purpose of hydroelectric power was dammed. The first hydroelectric power plant at the Kemi was taken in 1948 Isohaara in operation. Meanwhile, a total of 18 power plants spread by the river, of which 16 belong to the association founded in 1954 Kemi Oy. 34.5 % of the energy produced in Finland by hydroelectric origins of these plants, which came to a total output of 4.3 TWh in 2003. In order to regulate the amount of water for the purpose of hydroelectric power, the inflows Luiro and Kitinen were dammed to the reservoirs Lokka and Porttipahta. Before the construction of hydropower stations of Kemi was an extremely good fishing river; especially the salmon occurred in large flocks.