Leopold Canal
| Leopold Canal | ||
 The channel in the Elz river system |
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| Data | ||
| Water code | DE : 233792 | |
| location |
Baden-Württemberg
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| River system | Rhine | |
| Drain over | Rhine → North Sea | |
| origin | Junction from the Elz at Riegel am Kaiserstuhl 48 ° 9 ′ 13 ″ N , 7 ° 45 ′ 13 ″ E |
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| muzzle | at Rhine km 253,500 at Niederhausen in the Rhine Coordinates: 48 ° 15 ′ 4 ″ N , 7 ° 40 ′ 50 ″ E 48 ° 15 ′ 4 ″ N , 7 ° 40 ′ 50 ″ E
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| length | 12.5 km | |
 Leopold Canal with low discharge, about 200 m below the Alte Elz diversion |
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The Leopold Canal is a canal for flood relief of the Elz . It has a length of 12.5 km, begins at Riegel am Kaiserstuhl and flows into the Rhine from the right at Niederhausen . In 1846 the canal was named after the then Grand Duke Leopold of Baden .
history
The natural floodplains of the rivers Elz , Dreisam and Glotter north of Riegel have always been affected by the floods of these rivers through severe damage, famine and epidemics: For example, in 1778, when the Elz moved its riverbed and temporarily flowed into the Rhine between Wyhl and Weisweil . Between 1801 and 1837 this area was flooded about 30 times.
In 1802, a geometer Knöbel from Riegel suggested to the authorities in his town to build a canal that would divert the floods of the three rivers straight into the Rhine. Since the rulership relationships in this area were completely torn, the possibility of comprehensive planning only arose after all communities had belonged to the Grand Duchy of Baden from 1806 . In 1816, at the instigation of Johann Gottfried Tulla , the government in Karlsruhe and the neighboring communities founded the river engineering association for the “emergency canal” between Riegel and Rhine, which drew up the plans for the canal construction, which were completed in 1831. In 1834 the association decided to build the canal, the cost of which was estimated at 385,000 guilders.
On August 28, 1835, the government in Karlsruhe passed a law stating:
"To rectify the Dreisam River by means of a canal from Neuershausen and the Elz River from Köndringen via Riegel to the Rhine near Niederhausen, the municipalities of Neuershausen , Oberschaffhausen , Bötzingen , Eichstetten , Bahlingen , Nimburg , Köndringen , Hecklingen , Riegel , Kenzingen , Herbolzheim , Ringsheim , Kappel , Rust , Oberhausen and Niederhausen formed a competition. A grant of 300,000 guilders in four annual terms is given to this company from the state treasury. The new river bed and dams fall to the state, the old river bed on the other hand to the participating communities. "
Construction began in three places in 1837. The river bed was handcrafted to a width of 20 meters and the dams were raised to a height of six meters above the bed. Women were also employed as workers, who carried the earth with baskets. In 1843 the 12.5 km long canal between Riegel and the mouth of the canal into the Rhine was handed over to its intended use.
The actual costs of 693,000 guilders were well above the estimate, so that the municipalities of the “competition” had to take out a loan of 400,000 guilders from the Badische welfare institution in Karlsruhe. For this reason, resentment arose at times in the communities, but this fell silent when the northern Breisgau was spared from floods for the first time during the extreme floods of 1844 and 1845 .
On November 15, 1846, the “Noth Canal Project” was given the name of Grand Duke Leopold. On this day, at the point in Riegel, where the “Alte Elz” is diverted from the Leopold Canal, an obelisk was unveiled to commemorate the construction of the Leopold Canal. It bears the following inscription:
“To ward off the devastating floods of the Dreisam and Elz, these canals were built from 1837 to 1842 under the blessed government of Grand Duke Leopold by the combined forces of the state and the communities involved.
To the Grand Duke Leopold the grateful communities Neuershausen Hecklingen Boetzingen Kenzingen Eichstetten Herbolsheim Nimburg Oberhausen Bahlingen Niederhausen Koendringen Rust Malterdingen Ringsheim Riegel Kappel 1846 "
Catchment area and hydrological data
The Leopold Canal has a catchment area of 1102 km² at the Riegel level of the Freiburg Regional Council, which lies below the confluence of the Elz, Alter Dreisam, Dreisam Canal and Glotter.
At this point Leopoldskanal and Alte Elz separate. The Alte Elz receives around 7–8 m³ / s on a permanent basis, while the excess runoff, especially the flood, is carried away via the Leopold Canal. Due to this regulation, it can happen with very low water volumes that the Leopold Canal falls largely dry.
The flood forecast center of Baden-Württemberg specifies the following hydrological parameters for the Riegel gauge. For comparison, the last lines give values that were measured during historical flood events.
| Average of the lowest water levels (runoffs) from 1980–2003 | 0.02 m | 0.17 m³ / s |
| Average water level (discharge) for the years 1980–2003 | 0.48 m | 13.80 m³ / s. |
| 2-year HW water level (discharge) | 2.55 m | 162 m³ / s |
| 10-year HW water level (discharge) | 3.54 m | 304 m³ / s |
| 20-year HW water level (discharge) | 3.90 m | 364 m³ / s |
| 50-year HW water level (discharge) | 4.37 m | 446 m³ / s |
| 100-year HW water level (discharge) | 4.96 m | 512 m³ / s |
| May 25, 1983 | 3.56 m | --- |
| December 22, 1991 | 3.80 m | --- |
literature
- Watzka, Volker (Ed.): Between Kandel and Kaiserstuhl . Encounters with the country and its people in the Emmendingen district. Emmendingen, S. 158 .
- Hämmerle, Reinhold (1984): The taming of the Elz through the Leopold Canal. - Die Pforte: Working Group for History and Regional Studies Kenzingen 7/8, Vol. 4, pp. 36–45.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Regional Council Freiburg: Concept to improve the conditions for the rebuilding of a salmon stock in the Elz-Dreisam system ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 2009, p. 9
- ↑ Flood forecast center Baden-Württemberg . State Institute for the Environment Baden-Württemberg. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
Web links
- Dossier of the Badische Zeitung , 2019