The Bjoreio, also known as the Bjoreia, is a river in the municipality of

Eidfjord Eidfjord is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The municipality is located in the traditional district of Hardanger. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Eidfjord, where the majority of the municipal populati ...

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, whe ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The river is long, and it has a

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

of . Its natural average

discharge Discharge may refer to Expel or let go * Discharge, the act of firing a gun * Discharge, or termination of employment, the end of an employee's duration with an employer * Military discharge, the release of a member of the armed forces from serv ...

is , but this is considerably less today because of hydroelectric infrastructure along the watercourse. The Bjoreio has its origin on the northwest side of Sildabunutane, a mountain in Hardangervidda National Park. The river, which is called the ''Eitro'' here, then runs southeast through Sildabudalen, a wide valley, and into Langavatnet, a lake at an elevation of . Under the name ''Snero'' the river continues the short distance to

Tinnhølen Tinnhølen or Tinnhylen is a lake in Norway that lies in the municipality of Eidfjord in Vestland county and a very small part crosses into the municipality of Nore og Uvdal in Viken county. The lake lies just inside Hardangervidda Nationa ...

, a lake at . When it flows out of Tinnhølen the river is now named Bjoreio, and it runs to the northwest out of the national park and down through the Bjorei Valley (''Bjoreidalen''). At the Nybu tourist lodge it is joined by the Svinto from the east. Here the river runs through the Bjorei Valley Nature Reserve (''Bjoreidalen naturreservat''). In the nature reserve there is a ban on walking outside specially marked trails from May 20 to July 20 to protect nesting birds. Further downstream, at Storlia, is the high

Sysen Dam The Sysen Dam ( no, Sysendammen) is a rock-fill embankment dam in the municipality of Eidfjord in Hordaland, Norway. The dam is long, high, and wide at its base. It is built of of stone and moraine deposits. The dam holds back Lake Sysen, ...

, a large stone embankment that creates Lake Sysen on the Leiro River just before it empties into the Bjoreio. The rivers continues westward through the Sysen Valley, where its tributaries include the Isdølo from the north and the Drolstølbekken from the south. At Fossli the river creates high Vøring Falls, where it hurtles down into the narrow and deep Måbø Valley. The river empties into Lake Eidfjord in Øvre Eidfjord, only from the nearby Veig River. At the opposite end of Lake Eidfjord, the short Eio River empties into the Hardanger Fjord. Together with the nearby Sima River to the north, the Bjoreio River has been developed for power production at the

Sima Hydroelectric Power Station The Sima Power Station is a hydroelectric power station located in the municipality Eidfjord in Vestland, Norway. It stands at the mouth of the Sima River. The facility Lang-Sima operates at an installed capacity of , and has an average annual ...

. Lake Sysen is used as the main reservoir. The river's flow has been diverted through a tunnel to the lake and, together with the upper course of the Isdølo, the water is then directed to the power station below Kjeåsen on the north side of the Simadal Fjord. The river bed below the Sysen Dam is dry for most of the year, but during the summer season it is required to release water so that the flow at Vøring Falls is at least . At the lower end of Lake Måbø (''Måbøvatnet''), the old road through the valley crosses the river over the Måbø Bridge.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Vestland Eidfjord Rivers of Norway

See also

References