Niederwesterwald

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Location of the Niederwesterwald in the Westerwald

The Niederwesterwald is a landscape of over 1300 km² in the west of the Westerwald and in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate and, to a lesser extent, in the south of North Rhine-Westphalia . It reaches 545 m north-east of Koblenz at the Montabaurer Höhe . In terms of natural space , the Niederwesterwald represents the main unit 324 within the main unit group Westerwald (32). In its south it also includes the historical cultural landscape of Kannenbäckerland .

The north (west) of the Niederwesterwald is also called the Vorderwesterwald , as it lies “in front” of the Westerwald from Cologne and Bonn. Its limits are, however, only vaguely defined.

Another name is Unterwesterwald . It appears frequently in the name of associations and institutions, but is not used uniformly. Mostly it describes the area of ​​the former Unterwesterwaldkreis , which does not contain the entire Niederwesterwald to the west and north, but protrudes to the east into the (natural) Oberwesterwald .

About naming

The prefix " Nieder " does not mean that the landscape as a whole is more shallow than the neighboring Oberwesterwald to the east . Rather, it refers to the border rivers Lahn and Sieg as well as the inner rivers Saynbach and Wied , which pass the Niederwesterwald on their respective lower reaches.

Location and limits

Topographic map of the Westerwald

The Niederwesterwald extends southeast to the Limburg Basin below the Elbbach estuary in Limburg . From there, it accompanies Lower Lahntal the Lahn to its mouth in Lahnstein then the south and to the northwest Neuwied Basin and the Lower Middle Rhine Valley of the Rhine to Bad Honnef southwest.

Especially the estuary of the Wied from Melsbach , extended to the southeast to the Saynbach lower reaches in Sayn , is still included in the Neuwied basin. The Linz terrace , which covers the Niederwesterwald below Bad Hönningen to immediately south of Bad Honnef from a height of around 200 m, is also included in the Lower Middle Rhine region.

The northwest border to Siebengebirge and Pleiser Hügelland runs from Bad Honnef to the northeast to the city ​​of Blankenberg , from where the central victory valley of the Sieg is touched about 4 km to the east . From now on, the valley of the Eipbach upstream to Kircheib is the approximate border to the Leuscheid, which adjoins it to the east .

Now the northern border to the Leuscheid meanders further east, from Weyerbusch it always runs close to the watershed between Weil and Sieg and reaches Eichelhardt . From then on, the border to the Nisterbergland stretches almost exactly along the aforementioned watershed southeast to Müschenbach, immediately northwest of Hachenburg .

From the west of Hachenburg the Niederwesterwald meets parts of the Oberwesterwald to the east . The eastern border reaches the eponymous river of this place in Wied , runs over Mündersbach and Steinen to reach the Saynbach in Maxsain , which it follows to Selters .

The Gelbach- Oberlauf Aubach is passed, immediately after the northern watershed between Lahn and Sayn, above Ötzingen , its tributaries Ahrbach near Niederahr and Eisenbach near Steinefrenz . At Dreikirchen , the Elbbach tributary Erbach is finally crossed and the Limburg basin is soon reached again.

Natural structure

The main unit Niederwesterwald was introduced at the end of the 1950s by amalgamating the provisional main units Montabaur Westerwald , Rheinwesterwald and Vorderwesterwälder plateaus , whereby the Siebengebirge and the Pleiser Hügelland are no longer part of the natural Westerwald.

It is structured as follows:

With front Westerwald the units are referred 324.4-324.6 and 324.80 and 324.9 roughly with Kannenbaeckerland about the units 324.1-324.3 and the southeast of the unit 324.6 and the outermost South of 324.7. It should be noted that the last-named landscape is a cultural landscape that follows historical rather than natural boundaries.

For the misleading use of the terms Niederwesterwald and Montabaurer Westerwald by the BfN, cf. the footnote.

landscape

The southern east of the landscape consists of the valley system of Montabaurer Senke (in the south) and the Dierdorfer Senke to the northwest . The latter merges to the north into the Altenkirchen plateau , which continues to the west in the Asbach plateau . All four landscapes have in common that they come up against significantly higher undulating landscapes in practically all directions - with the exception of the Asbach plateau to the north-west, where the Pleiser Hügelland and Mitteliegtal join. This flat, undulating part of the Niederwesterwald is only moderately forested and is used agriculturally for both arable farming and grassland. In the depressions in the south there are also some larger mining sites for gravel and sand.

In contrast, the west of the Niederwesterwald has two distinct elevations, the northwest of which in the form of the Siebengebirge, which is up to 460 m high, is located outside the actual Westerwald, but the Rheinwesterwald volcanic ridge with its added peaks sets its ridge with a little less relief, but still heights up to 430 m (originally 448 m), continued to the southeast. The Rhine-Wied ridge , which adjoins to the south-east and clearly separates the valleys of the Rhine and Wied, is already markedly less volcanic and reaches a maximum of 373 m.

The winding Waldbreitbacher Wiedtal , which runs in north-south direction, separates the Rhine-Wied ridge from the Sayn-Wied plateau to the east as a pronounced curb valley . The bottom of the valley is at risk of flooding and is dominated by the alluvial fans of the tributaries that carry plenty of debris. The Sayn-Wied plateau is similar in relief to the Rhein-Wied ridge, but is larger and reaches a maximum of 427 m.

To the southeast, the plateau meets the partly steep, partly more gently sloping Isenburg Sayntal , to the southeast of which the Kannenbäcker plateau , which reaches 346 m in the immediate vicinity of the Sayntal, joins, which merges to the east into the absolute center of gravity of the Niederwesterwald, the up to 546 m high Montabaurer Höhe .

The 300  m above sea level NN at over 450  m above sea level. NN rising Emsbach-Gelbach heights complete the area to the south. These plateaus are structured by isolated ridges and elevations. The Emsbach and Gelbach drain this area to the south and cut the landscape with its broad-bottomed box valleys in a feathery shape.

Most of the western Niederwesterwald is forested; the comparatively flat sections of the plateaus and the broader beds of the stream valleys are subject to agricultural use. Smaller parts of the area, such as the Wiedtal, are also used for tourism.

Nature parks

The majority of the west of the A 3 lying parts of the landscape in Nature Park incorporated.

The small north-west part of the landscape belonging to North Rhine-Westphalia lies entirely in the Siebengebirge nature park . The Rhine-Westerwald nature park adjoining to the south-east mainly comprises the Rhineland-Palatinate majority of the Rheinwesterwälder volcanic peaks, the Rhine-Wied ridge, the Waldbreitbacher Wiedtal and the Sayn-Wied plateau. The south of A 48 and A 3 located part of Kannenbacker plateau Montabaurer height and Montabaurer sink and the Emsbach-Gelbach heights are in contrast to natural Park Nassau .

Nature reserves

The North Rhine-Westphalian north of the Rheinwesterwald volcanic ridge lies entirely in the Siebengebirge nature reserve . To the east of this are the smaller nature reserves Basalt Quarry Hühnerberg , Basalt Quarry Eudenberg and Segelfluggelaende Eudenbach in the west of the Asbach plateau. The NSG Ahrenbachtal and Adscheider Tal lies at the northern junction of the Pleiser Hügelland and Mitteliegtal .

In the Dierdorfer Senke there are the small nature reserves Irrlichtsweiher and Holzbachtal as well as the NSG Schimmelsbachtal at the eastern interface to Dreifelder Weiherland .

In the extreme north of the Sayn-Wied plateau lies the small NSG Bertenauer Kopf und Telegraphenhuegel , and immediately southeast of the Rhein-Wied ridge is the small NSG Auf der Hardt .

In the northwest of the Kannenbäcker plateau lies the small NSG Tongrube Huettwohl , in the north of the plateau of Welschneudorf the small NSG Stelzenbachwiesen .

The Malberg nature reserve and, immediately south of Montabaur, the small NSG Spießweiher are located in the Montabaur depression .

Due to its uniqueness, the Waldbreitbacher Wiedtal is classified as particularly important in the landscape planning and proposed as a reserve area for the protection of the landscape in the regional spatial planning plan.

mountains

The most important surveys of the Niederwesterwald include:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d map services ( memento of the original dated December 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the BfN @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bfn.de
  2. ↑ a b Map services of Rhineland-Palatinate with maps of natural and landscape areas (→ Landscape experience → Landscapes in Rhineland-Palatinate)
  3. ^ E. Meynen and J. Schmithüsen: Handbook of the natural spatial structure of Germany , 4th delivery (Remagen 1957), p. 501 ff (Wilhelm Hartnack) - Federal Institute for Regional Studies and Spatial Planning
  4. ↑ Map of Germany's natural spatial structure 1: 1,000,000 from the Federal Office for Regional Geography 1954
  5. ^ Map of Germany's natural spatial structure 1: 1,000,000 from the Federal Institute for Regional Studies and Regional Planning 1960
  6. ↑ Landscapes in Rhineland-Palatinate: Westerwald (324.x are parts of the Niederwesterwald)
  7. ↑ a b The BfN uses the terms Niederwesterwald and Montabaurer Westerwald z. Partly highly misleading and not even uniform! Within its map services ( Memento of the original from December 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In the "Protected Areas" service, it refers to the entire Niederwesterwald main unit (according to Meynen et al.) as "Montabaurer Westerwald". In the "Landscapes" map service and in its landscape profiles, in turn, it summarizes the west under "Montabaurer Westerwald" and designates the flat, undulating east of the landscape as "Niederwesterwald". @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bfn.de