Schicksalspegel Kaub

Today, Red Baron read an NYT article about a water plan for America's once-mighty Colorado River.

"Across the region, two decades of drought have reduced winter snowpack, which creates the majority of the river's flow. At the same time, warming temperatures caused by climate change have increased water losses from evaporation."

The reduced flow has forced Federal Authorities to regulate how much water neighboring states can draw from the river in the future, with major impacts on agriculture and industries along the Colorado.

The growing scarcity of resources is a dramatic turning point for the US, where continuous growth is still a leitmotif.

In Europe, the ongoing heat wave and lack of rain have caused several rivers to reach historically low water levels.

The Dreisam through Freiburg (©BZ)

The lack of water immediately catches your eye when you look at Freiburg's river, the Dreisam. Yesterday, at the measuring station upstream in Ebnet, the water level was 17 cm, while the average water level for the Dreisam at this point is 52 cm.

The Dreisam has disappeared completely a few kilometers downstream (©SWR)

No water to spare! Even Freiburg's tourist attraction, the Bächle, are currently dry.

The situation is more dramatic on the Rhine. In "normal" years, 285 million metric tons of cargo pass through Europe's busiest inland waterway. The prolonged drought is steadily lowering the Rhine's water level. The proud and much-praised river is now nothing more than a trickle.

The critical situation at Kaub (©Die Zeit)

The levels near the historical site of Kaub are critical for Rhine shipping. Yesterday the key gauge at the Kaub measuring station reached an all-time low of 24 cm, i.e., below the lowest level of 25 cm recorded in October 2018. The Federal Institute of Hydrology forecasts 9 cm for August 13!

©Wikipedia

Marion Halft took this historical photo of the low water level at Kaub in 2018. It was just under 30 cm on October 20 and dropped to 25 cm on October 22. Pfalzgrafenstein Castle, a former toll station, is visible in the background.

For comparison: The so-called Equivalent Water Level (EWL), where shipping around Kaub is unlimited, is a water level gauge of 77 cm. This translates into a depth in the Kaub "navigation channel" of 190 cm. In the past, average water depths in this "Wilder Gefähr (Wild Ferrying)" were at 208 cm.

 

©SWR

At a water level gauge of 24 cm, the navigation channel is only 137 cm deep. Therefore, normal cargo ships can only pass the Gefähr at Kaub when loaded to a maximum of 30%.

According to the Rhineland-Palatinate Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK), "Below a water level gauge of 40 cm (i.e. 153 cm depth) at Kaub, inland navigation is not feasible." Because ships can operate only with significantly reduced cargo volumes, transport costs rise.

©Financial Times

The IHK should not forget about international shipping of goods between Basel, Switzerland, and Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

The water level at the Kaub measuring station becomes Europe's Schicksalspegel.


Red Baron is a history freak. So he relates Kaub to Field Marshal Forward, Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher's crossing of the Rhine River on New Year's Day 1814 in the pursuit of Napoleon.

While people celebrated New Year's Eve across Europe, preparations began near Kaub for one of the era's largest military river crossings (Read more).

Russian engineers of the First Silesian Army built a pontoon bridge in the cold and fog, and in secret, because the French were to find out as late as possible where Blücher intended to cross the Rhine on his way to Waterloo. Pfalzgrafenstein Castle served as an important base and bridgehead.

Over the next five days, an entire army crossed the Rhine, comprising about 50,000 soldiers, around 15,000 horses, and 182 artillery pieces.

It was a logistical feat.

©T-Online

In case the Rhine runs dry, future river cruises will be handled by a substitute bus service.

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