Emscher
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Emscher | |
|---|---|
 The Emscher in southern Dortmund | |
 | |
| Location | |
| Country | Germany |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Holzwickede |
| • location | Eastern Ruhr Area |
| • elevation | 160 m (520 ft) |
| Mouth | Rhine |
• coordinates | 51°33′48″N 6°41′23″E / 51.56333°N 6.68972°E |
| Length | 83.2 km (51.7 mi)[1] |
| Basin size | 793 km2 (306 sq mi)[1] |
| Discharge | |
| • average | 16 m3/s (570 cu ft/s) |
| Basin features | |
| Progression | Rhine→ North Sea |
The Emscher (German pronunciation: [ˈɛmʃɐ] ⓘ) is a river, a tributary of the Rhine, that flows through the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. Its overall length is 83 kilometres (52 mi) with a mean outflow near the mouth into the lower Rhine of 16 m3/s (570 cu ft/s).
The Emscher has its wellspring in Holzwickede, east of the city of Dortmund. Towns along the Emscher are Dortmund, Castrop-Rauxel, Herne, Recklinghausen, Gelsenkirchen, Essen, Bottrop, Oberhausen and Dinslaken, where it flows into the Rhine.
At the centre of a vast industrial area with 5 million inhabitants the river was biologically dead, as it was used as an open waste-water canal from the end of the 19th century. The subsidence caused by coal mining along its route made the option of subterranean sewer pipes running alongside unworkable, as they would break each time the ground shifted.
Owing to the steady flow of spoil from the mining industry it has been impossible for the route of the Emscher to be maintained and its mouth into the Rhine has shifted north twice. A large wastewater treatment plant at its mouth treats the water of the Emscher before it flows into the Rhine.
