Emme
The Emme , rarely also called the Grosse Emme , is a river in Switzerland .
Surname
Their name goes back to the Gallic-Celtic word ambis (= river, Latin amnis ).
geography
course
The Emme rises in the area between Hohgant and Augstmatthorn in the canton of Bern, right on the border with the canton of Lucerne . The 82 km long Emme flows through and is eponymous for the Emmental and flows into the Aare in the so-called Emmenspitz below Solothurn .
Tributaries
The most important tributaries are the Ilfis , the Urtenen and the Limpach .
Hydrology
The catchment area of the Emme is 976 km². The mean water flow at the mouth is around 20 m³ / s. The maximum water flow is up to over 650 m³ / s (663 m³ / s on August 8, 2007, Wiler measuring station, Limpach estuary)
The Emme is known for the fact that thunderstorms in the headwaters can cause real tidal waves in the Emmental, known as Anschutz . The story “Die Wassernot im Emmental” by Jeremias Gotthelf describes one of the biggest known floods of August 13th, 1837 very impressively. This and other floods led to the fact that in the 19th century the Emme was canalized over large stretches and embankments were built on both sides.
On July 24, 2014, for example, as a result of downpours with local rainfall of up to 100 liters per square meter, the Emme at Emmenmatt swelled from around 24 m³ / s to over 420 m³ / s, with normal runoff of 20 m³ / s.
Due to the drought and heat in Europe in 2018 , the river bed dried out in places in the same year.
Source and mouth of the Emme
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Industrial channels on the lower reaches
On its lower reaches, the Emme has been used industrially since the 19th century. With a weir near Biberist (SO), their water is removed and fed into the industrial sewer, the narrow cross-section of which leads to a high flow rate. Since the beginning of the 20th century, several small hydropower plants have been operated that supply neighboring industrial companies such as the Biberist paper mill or feed them into the public grid. In the 19th century, before electrification, the canal was used to drive transmissions from the Biberist paper mill and the Schöller textile mill in Derendingen .
There is also another industrial canal that drains into the Emme just before the aforementioned Biberister Weir, whose water does not only come from the Emme, but also from various streams in the vicinity of Utzenstorf (BE). They are also transformed into a rapid flow through canalization, which today supplies the small power plants of the Utzenstorf paper mill and the Gerlafingen steelworks . The latter covered and partly covered its water needs from the canal.
literature
- Anne-Marie Dubler : Emme. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- O. Birkner: The Emme Canal
Web links
- Jeremias Gotthelf : The water shortage in the Emmental in the Gutenberg-DE project
- Petri Heil: Emme 251/252
- Emmenlauf: The Emme
- Konrad Meyer-Usteri: Wooden bridges in the Emmental and Bernese Oberaargau. Bolligen, April 2004 (pdf; 290 kB)
- Emme floods July 29, 2012 on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Geoserver of the Swiss Federal Administration ( information )
- ↑ Evaluations of the water network. (XLSX) FOEN , December 2013, accessed on August 9, 2017 (listing of Swiss rivers> 30km).
- ↑ Topographical catchment areas of Swiss waters: area outlets. Retrieved May 30, 2019 .
- ↑ Measurement station Limpach estuary Wiler 1922–2016 (PDF) Federal Office for the Environment FOEN
- ↑ Hydrological data on the Emme, Federal Office for the Environment
- ↑ Flood event analysis August 2007, Federal Office for the Environment, page 75
- ↑ Measurement data from AWA Bern , accessed on July 26, 2014.
- ↑ Drought and heat - when all that's left of the river is a bed In: srf.ch , July 28, 2018, accessed on July 29, 2018.