Gouritz River

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Gouritz River
Gouritsrivier
View upstream (west of Mossel Bay)

View upstream (west of Mossel Bay)

Data
location Western Cape , South Africa
River system Gouritz River
source undefined, designation after confluence
33 ° 40 ′ 54 ″  S , 21 ° 42 ′ 53 ″  O
muzzle at Gouritsmond in the Indian Ocean Coordinates: 34 ° 20 ′ 48 ″  S , 21 ° 53 ′ 19 ″  E 34 ° 20 ′ 48 ″  S , 21 ° 53 ′ 19 ″  E

length longest route 328 km
Catchment area 53,139 km²
Reservoirs flowed through as Gouritz River: none

The Gouritz River (alternative spellings Gourits River , Afrikaans Gouritsrivier ) is a flowing body of water in the Western Cape Province of South Africa . With its tributaries in the upper and middle reaches and a total area of ​​53,139 square kilometers, it has the largest catchment area of all rivers in this province, including smaller peripheral areas of the provinces Northern Cape and Eastern Cape . The mouth of the river lies on the Indian Ocean in an approximately 10 kilometer long estuary southwest of the coastal town of Mossel Bay . The largest watercourse length in the catchment area is given as 328 kilometers.

description

Gouritz River water system

There are different interpretations for naming a stretch of water with this name. With the confluence of the Gamka River and the Olifants River (location:) south of the city of Calitzdorp , their common watercourse is currently known as the Gouritz River. According to other representations (Molter, 1966) the name is already used south of Oudtshoorn (location:) or (Raper, 1987) at the confluence of the Dwyka and Gamka rivers (location:) . World iconWorld iconWorld icon

The Gamka River takes on the Dwyka Rivier and Leeuw Rivier watercourses coming from the Great Edge step .

The Groot River , which flows in from the west, arises from the union of the Buffels River, coming from the Great Edge, with the Touws River from the northeastern slopes of the Hex River Mountains . Its confluence with the Gouritz River lies before the breakthrough valley in the Langeberg Mountains .

The Olifants River comes from the eastern catchment area and supplies the Gouritz River with the largest amount of water. Its headwaters extend to the territory of the Eastern Cape Province. The most important tributary is the Kammanassie River , immediately south of the urban area of ​​Oudtshoorn, both watercourses meet. The Kammanassie River, which rises in the eastern part of the Couga Mountains, is particularly rich in water, all year round. Its name is derived from the Khoisan language and refers to a "water mountain". Given these conditions, no separate source region has been defined for the Gouritz River.

The Gouritz River with its main tributaries is characterized by a special type of water flow . In the course of the upper tributaries (Leeuw, Gamka and Dwyka) in the Great Karoo there is a periodic, sometimes only episodic water flow. In the middle sections (Gamka River as well as Groot, Buffels and Touws River, in the east Olifants and Kammanassie Rivers) in the area of ​​the Little Karoo the levels are periodic and in the coastal areas of the lower reaches the water flow is year-round . The more recent climatic changes observed show a further differentiation of the precipitation cycles and the natural water balance for the territory of the Little Karoo. Rising air temperatures cause a greater loss of evaporation , which leads to a partial or total compensation of increased summer precipitation. It is expected that there will be an increasing number of skyrocketing water levels, which can trigger unpredictable floods .

There are four sub-catchment areas: Gamka , Groot , Olifants and Gouritz . There are no major dams in the direct catchment area of ​​the Gouritz River. In contrast, some important tributaries each have dams of regional significance. The average annual rainfall is between 100 and 300 millimeters, in the coastal zone between 400 and 500 mm.

Its estuary is known as rich fishing waters . The Japanese king fish (Dusky Kob; Argyrosomus japonicus ) is a popular species . Due to environmental protection legislation, fishing in the stream and from the riparian zones is now largely prohibited or dependent on limited approval procedures from the community and the Gouritz River Conservation Trust .

With its backwaters coming from the north, the Gouritz River is the only river in the Cape Country that crosses three essential landscape zones between the Great Rim and the Ocean Coast, the Great Karoo, the Small Karoo in the Cape Fold Mountains and the coastal country. In addition, some main tributaries (Gamka and Buffels River) have dug their way through the mountain ranges up to 2000 meters high, breakthrough valleys , some of which form steep gorges and form a bizarre landscape. In some tributaries, the suspended load in the water is so enriched that there is a disruptive load with silt deposits in dams (Prins and Kammanassie Rivers).

Surname

The river has been given different names since the arrival of European seafarers on the South African coast. On the world map by Henricus Martellus Germanus , which dates to around 1492 and is attributed to the influence of Ptolemy , there is an entry with the Italian name Rio della Vache , which in Portuguese reads Rio das Vaccas ("River of the cows"). A widely accepted view is that after Bartolomeu Dias' sea ​​voyage in the Cape region, the river was known as the Rio dos Vaqueiros ("River of the Cows").

According to the historian George McCall Theal , it was the VOC military officer Hieronymus Cruse who returned to Cape Town by land in 1667 or 1668 after a ship expedition to Mossel Bay and coined the current name. To do this, he had to cross the river at a suitable point. In the region, Cruse met members of the Khoisan tribe Gouriqua, after whom he is said to have named the river. Charles Pettman, an explorer of name issues in South Africa, interpreted the river name as Khoisan word for "impure" or "dirty" ( English dirty ).

Tributaries

The tributaries listed below form a selection for the stretch of water that is currently known as the Gouritz River in South Africa. The respective list is made in the direction of discharge.

  • right: Groot River (Grootrivier), Valsrivier
  • left side: Langtou

Water use

In the Little Karoo, mainly only the bank terraces of these rivers, which periodically carry water during the rainy season, are suitable for agricultural purposes . The valleys are filled with gravel and sand . Outside of the rainy season, there are residual ponds that indicate a certain groundwater level.

With the establishment of the Breede-Gouritz Catchment Management Agency in July 2005 on the basis of the National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998), the use of the water reserves in this catchment area was newly regulated by an administrative merger of the former Breede WMA and Gouritz WMA and in May 2014 extended to the Overberg area. The agency has been entrusted with the tasks of a regional water authority to carry out the necessary planning of the water resources and to control their use. Two administrative locations are maintained in Worcester (headquarters) and in George .

Bridges and traffic routes

For the regional road R327, a bridge was built over the river northwest of Herbertsdale and a few kilometers below the mouth of the Groot River.

Bridges to overcome the gorge, direction of flow from left to right in the picture

West of the city of Mossel Bay , the railway line coming from Cape Town via Worcester ( Worcester – Voorbaai railway line ) and the N2 national road cross the Gouritz River over a gorge. For this purpose, two bridges in use span the river. Between the two bridges there is another, old bridge that can no longer be used by moving traffic, which is the earliest structure here. The road bridge is a reinforced concrete structure from 1978 with two inclined double pillars and three flat arched arch segments.

Downstream towards its mouth, a bridge crosses the course of the river, which serves regional traffic between small towns near the coast.

Web links

Commons : Gourits River  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Western Cape Government, Provincial Department of Environmental Affairs & Development Planning (Ed.): Gouritz River Estuarine Management Plan . online at www.gardenroute.gov.za (English, PDF), here PDF document p. 4, 39–40
  2. ^ A b Western Cape Government, Provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning: The Gouritz WMA . In: Western Cape Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) Action Plan - Status Quo Report, online at www.westerncape.gov.za (English, PDF file), here PDF document p. 1, overview plan p. 4
  3. ↑ according to OSM
  4. ↑ a b c d e Traugott Molter: Water balance and irrigation agriculture in the Cape . Franz Steiner Verlag , Wiesbaden 1966, p. 26
  5. ^ Peter Edmund Raper: Dictionary of Southern African place names . Lowry, Johannesburg 1987
  6. ^ Molter: water balance . 1966, pp. 117-119
  7. ^ SA-Venus: About Kammanassie Nature Reserve . on www.sa-venues.com (English)
  8. ^ Molter: water balance . 1966, p. 80
  9. ↑ David Le Maitre, Christine Colvin, Ashton Maherry: Water resources in the Klein Karoo: the challenge of sustainable development in a water-scarce area . In: South African Journal of Science, Vol. 105 (2009) No. 1–2, pp. 39–48, online at www.scielo.org.za (English, also as PDF)
  10. ↑ Western Cape Government: Gouritz River Estuarine Management Plan . PDF document p. 40
  11. ↑ Breede Gouritz CMA: Dam Levels: Gouritz River Catchment Area Management . on www.breedegouritzcma.co.za (English)
  12. ↑ Western Cape Government: Gouritz River Estuarine Management Plan , PDF document p. 6
  13. ^ Molter: water balance . 1966, pp. 26, 117, 121
  14. ^ Molter: water balance . 1966, pp. 118, 121
  15. ^ A b South African History Online : Gouritz River . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  16. ↑ Eric Rosenthal: Southern African Dictionary of National Biography . Frederick & Warne, London, New York 1966, pp. 81, 289
  17. ↑ Breede – Gouritz CMA: Annual Report 2016/17 . online at www.pmg.com (English. PDF), here PDF document pp. 2, 22
  18. ^ Government of South Africa: Breede-Gouritz CMA. Contact . on www.gov.za (English)
  19. ↑ Breede – Gouritz CMA: website . on www.breedegouritzcma.co.za (English)
  20. ^ Peter Ball: Railways from War's End to Union (1902-1910) . on www.theheritageportal.co.za (English)
  21. ↑ Anonymous: Gouritz River Bridge . on www.structurae.net (English)