Seine river

The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre (and Honfleur on the left bank). It is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen, from the sea. Over 60 percent of its length, as far as Burgundy, is negotiable by large barges and most tour boats, and nearly its whole length is available for recreational boating; excursion boats offer sightseeing tours of the river banks in the capital city, Paris.

There are 37 bridges in Paris across the Seine (the most famous of which are the Pont Alexandre III and the Pont Neuf) and dozens more outside the city. A notable bridge, which is also the last along the course of the river, is the Pont de Normandie, the ninth longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, which links Le Havre and Honfleur.

River sources

The Seine rises in the commune of Source-Seine, about northwest of Dijon. The source has been owned by the city of Paris since 1864. A number of closely associated small ditches or depressions provide the source waters, with an artificial grotto laid out to highlight and contain a deemed main source. The grotto includes a statue of a nymph, a dog, and a dragon. On the same site are the buried remains of a Gallo-Roman temple. Small statues of the ''dea Sequana'' "Seine goddess" and other ex-votos found at the same place are now exhibited in the Dijon archaeological museum.

Course

The Seine can artificially be divided into five parts:
* the ''Petite Seine'', "Small Seine" from the sources to Montereau-Fault-Yonne
* the ''Haute Seine'', "Upper Seine" from Montereau-Fault-Yonne to Paris
* the ''Traversée de Paris'', "the Paris waterway"
* the ''Basse Seine'', "Lower Seine" from Paris to Rouen
* the ''Seine maritime'', "Maritime Seine" from Rouen to the English channel.

Below Rouen, the river passes through the ''Parc Naturel Régional des Boucles de la Seine Normande'', a French regional nature park.

Navigation

The Seine is dredged and ocean-going vessels can dock at Rouen, from the sea. Commercial craft (barges and push-tows) can use the river beginning at Marcilly-sur-Seine, to its mouth.

At Paris, there are 37 bridges. The river is only above sea level from its mouth, making it slow flowing and thus easily navigable.

The Seine Maritime, from the English Channel at Le Havre to Rouen, is the only portion of the Seine used by ocean-going craft.Fluviacarte
, Seine maritime The tidal section of the Seine Maritime is followed by a canalized section (''Basse Seine'') with four large multiple locks until the mouth of the Oise at Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (). Smaller locks at Bougival and at Suresnes lift the vessels to the level of the river in Paris, where the junction with the Canal Saint-Martin is located. The distance from the mouth of the Oise is .

The ''Haute Seine'', from Paris to Montereau-Fault-Yonne, is long and has 8 locks. At Charenton-le-Pont is the mouth of the Marne. Upstream from Paris seven locks ensure navigation to Saint Mammès, where the Loing mouth is situated. Through an eighth lock the river Yonne is reached at Montereau-Fault-Yonne. From the mouth of the Yonne, larger ships can continue upstream to Nogent-sur-Seine (, 7 locks). From there on, the river is navigable only by small craft to Marcilly-sur-Seine (, 4 locks).Fluviacarte
, Petite Seine (amont) At Marcilly-sur-Seine the 19th century Canal de la Haute-Seine used to allow vessels to continue all the way to Troyes. This canal has been abandoned since 1957.

The Seine's average depth in Paris today is approximately 9.5 meters (31 feet). Until locks were installed to raise the level in the 1800s, the river was much shallower within the city, and consisted of a small channel of continuous flow bordered by sandy banks (depicted in many illustrations of the period). Today the depth is tightly controlled and the entire width of the river between the built-up banks on either side is normally filled with water. The average flow of the river is very low, only a few cubic metres per second, but much higher flows are possible during periods of heavy runoff.

Dredging

Dredging in the 1960s mostly eliminated tidal bores on the lower river, known in French as ''"le mascaret."''

Dams and flood control

Four large storage reservoirs have been built since 1950 on the Seine as well as its tributaries Yonne, Marne, and Aube. These help in maintaining a constant level for the river through the city, but cannot prevent significant increases in river level during periods of extreme runoff. The dams are Lac d’Orient, Lac des Settons, Lake Der-Chantecoq, and Auzon-Temple and Amance, respectively.

Flooding

A very severe period of high water in January 1910 resulted in extensive flooding throughout the city of Paris. The Seine again rose to threatening levels in 1924, 1955, 1982, 1999–2000, June 2016, and January 2018. After a first-level flood alert in 2003, about 100,000 works of art were moved out of Paris, the largest relocation of art since World War II. Much of the art in Paris is kept in underground storage rooms that would have been flooded.

A 2002 report by the French government stated the worst-case Seine flood scenario would cost 10 billion euros and cut telephone service for a million Parisians, leaving 200,000 without electricity and 100,000 without gas.

2018 Paris flood

In January 2018 the Seine again flooded, reaching a flood level of on 29 January. An official warning was issued on 24 January that heavy rainfall was likely to cause the river to flood. By 27 January, the river was rising. The Deputy Mayor of Paris Colombe Brossel warned that the heavy rain was caused by climate change. He added that "We have to understand that climatic change is not a word, it's a reality."

Watershed

The basin area, including a part of Belgium, is , 2 percent of which is forest and 78 percent cultivated land. In addition to Paris, three other cities with a population over 100,000 are in the Seine watershed: Le Havre at the estuary, Rouen in the Seine valley and Reims at the northern limit—with an annual urban growth rate of 0.2 percent. The population density is 201 per square kilometer.

Tributaries

Tributaries of the Seine are, from source to mouth:

*Ource (right)
* Barse (right)
*Aube (right)
* Yonne (left)
* Loing (left)
* Almont (right)
* Essonne (left)
* Orge (left)
* Yerres (right)
* Marne (right)
* Bièvre (left)
*Oise (right)
* Aubette de Meulan (right)
* Mauldre (left)
* Vaucouleurs (left)
* Epte (right)
* Andelle (right)
*Eure

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