Rema Pikrodafnis

Rema Pikrodafnis Ρέμα Πικροδάφνης
The Rema Pikrodafnis about a kilometer from the mouth
Data
location	Athens ( Greece )
River system	Rema Pikrodafnis
source	at Ymittos 37 ° 56 ′ 24 ″  N , 23 ° 46 ′ 56 ″  E
Source height	488  m
muzzle	in the Saronic Gulf coordinates: 37 ° 55 '2 "  N , 23 ° 42' 0"  E 37 ° 55 '2 "  N , 23 ° 42' 0"  E
Mouth height	0  m
Height difference	488 m
Bottom slope	52 ‰
length	9.3 km
Catchment area	20.93 km²

The Rema Pikrodafnis ( Greek Ρέμα Πικροδάφνης , oleander brook ', also Pikrodafni ) is a brook in Greece that flows through the plain of Athens and usually carries water all year round. It rises on the western flank of the Ymittos , flows southwest and flows into the Saronic Gulf between Paleo Faliro and Alimos . Its catchment area covers 20.93 km², its gradient is up to 53%, on average 8.1%. The Pikrodafni brook is one of the few watercourses in the greater Athens area that has preserved the natural course of the river over a greater part of its length (around six kilometers). According to the law, it is of “particular ecological importance”.

course

With a length of around nine kilometers, the Pikrodafni Brook is the third largest river in the Athens Basin after the Kifisos and the Ilisos . It rises on the western flank of the Ymittos above Kareas in the area of ​​the municipality of Vyronas and initially flows to the west, passing the monastery of St. John the Baptist . From Kareas, the stream is built over, it turns here to the southwest and comes to the surface again at the Platia Paleon Patron Germanou in Ilioupoli . Here his bed is set in stone and flows through a small park. Then it reaches Agios Dimitrios , where it follows its natural course and is lined directly by the plots of the residential buildings. Further to the south-west it reaches the border with the municipality of Paleo Faliro, which it follows for a few hundred meters, then flows through a small area of ​​the municipality and shortly before the confluence reaches the border with Alimos, before it flows into the Saronic Gulf at its marina.

Tributaries

Four larger bodies of water flow - all on the right side - into the Pikrodafni brook. All of them only come to light just before the estuary.

• Rema Zoodochou Pigis (Ρέμα Ζωοδόχου Πηγής, )
• Rema Agiou Dimitriou or Amalias (Ρέμα Αγ. Δημητρίου ή Αμαλίας, )
• Rema Kopsachila or Kalogreon or Kalamon (Ρέμα Κοψαχείλα ή Καλογραιών ή Καλαμών, )
• Rema Kalogiron (Ρέμα Καλογήρων, )

nature

The bank vegetation is characterized by 25 invasive species ( neophytes ), which strongly oppose the 13 Attic plant species that can still be identified. Eels are found in the stream, but their habitat is threatened; near the mouth, there are also big-headed mullet , red mullet and blennies .

The creek is heavily polluted, especially in the section where private land comes directly up to it and garbage and debris is dumped. In addition, many households are not closed to the sewer system and direct their wastewater directly into the stream.

history

Until the end of the 19th century, the brook was hardly populated. The few villages in its vicinity had emerged from Turkish Çiftliks (country estates). Since the property passed into the hands of large Greek landowners after 1830, a large part of the area remained in private ownership even at the time of settlement from the 1920s and left little space for the public sector. At the same time, the streams of the Athens basin played an important role as drinking water suppliers at the beginning of the settlement, before the infrastructure of a modern water supply was installed. In the period after the Greek Civil War , the area by the stream was sold in small, inexpensive properties, the boundaries of which were partly unclear or which included the areas of the stream. Three bridges alone over the Pikrodafni brook are privately built and are not publicly maintained. Due to the 'chaotic', sometimes illegal, settlement of the area, the stream became increasingly dirty. A dispute arose about the design of the river. Many bodies of water in Athens were verdolted in the 1960s, preliminary studies for similar plans were also carried out in 1963-65 for the Pikrodafni Bach, while a year later a study by the Technical University of Berlin showed possibilities for a natural design of the brook. In the mid-1980s - similar to the comparable routes over the Kifisos and the Ilisos - an expressway was planned over the stream. In the course of increasing environmental awareness, the stream was protected by the state in 1993. In 1997, the Athens Water Company proposed setting up the river in a concrete bed. This provoked the determined resistance of the population, who organized themselves across all five neighboring communities, networked with the restoration programs of the EU and finally managed to suspend the work already started in Ilioupoli. In 2002, enormous rainfall in summer and autumn led to some destruction of both the regulatory structures that had been started and of bank areas, bridges and private buildings, which further fueled the dispute. In 2003 the Athens prefecture commissioned a study on the renaturation of the stream below the Vouliagmeni boulevard, which led to the first measures for the natural design of the stream.

literature

• Kosmas Anagnostopoulos: Το ρέμα της Πικροδάφνης και ο ρόλος των διαφόρων «ενδιαφερομένων» διαχρονικά, Athens 2003 ( PDF online , Greek)
• Andonia Seresli: Περιβαλλοντική αξιολόγηση των ρεμάτων της Αττικής - Η περίπτωση της Πικροδάφνης, diploma thesis, Athens 2014 ( PDF online , Greek)

Web links

• remapikrodafnis.gr - information site about the brook of a publicly funded project for the ecological rehabilitation of the brook (Greek)
• "Urban speleologists " photographic exploration tour in the twisted section in Ilioupoli

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Information about the brook ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2014 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. on remapikrodafnis.gr 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Presentation of the river  ( 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. at the Hellenic Center for Marine Research  
3. ↑ ^{a b} Giorgios Lialis: Ρέμα της Πικροδάφνης, ένας βρώμικος παράδεισος στον αστικό ιστό , Kathimerini . June 29, 2013. 
4. ↑ Liana Thanou: H πικρή ιστορία του ρέματος της Πικροδάφνης , skai.gr. April 27, 2011. 
5. ↑ Status report of the Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Athens 2012, map p. 10 ( PDF online ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. )