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The Urft Dam () is a 58.50 metre high dam in the southwestern part of the state of
North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...
in Germany. It was built in 1905. The dam impounds the River Urft in the district of
Euskirchen Euskirchen (; Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Öskerche'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Euskirchen (district), district Euskirchen. While Euskirchen resembles a modern shopping town, it also has a history dating ba ...
to create the Urft Reservoir (''Urftstausee''), 2.16 km2 in area. The reservoir is also called the ''Urftsee'' (Lake Urft). The Urft Dam, which was constructed during the period 1900 to 1905, and the Urft Reservoir, which was then the biggest reservoir in Europe, having belonged since 1993 to the Eifel-Rur Water Board (''Wasserverband Eifel-Rur'').


Location

The Urft barrier system that comprises the Urft Dam and Urft Reservoir is located in the Rur Eifel, a subdivision of the
North Eifel The North Eifel ({{langx, de, Nordeifel), the northern part of the Eifel, a low mountain range in Germany and East Belgium, comprises the following six sub-regions: * Venn Foreland, * Hohes Venn, * Rur Eifel, * Limestone Eifel, * Our Valley and * Hi ...
region, south of the
Kermeter The Kermeter is an upland region, up to , which is part of the Rureifel within the North Eifel in the districts of Aachen, Düren and Euskirchen in the southwestern part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The Kermeter ridge is ...
ridge, north-northeast of the
Dreiborn Plateau The Dreiborn Plateau () is an area of woods and open terrain, some 33 square kilometres in area, in the Eifel National Park. It corresponds to the area of the Vogelsang Military Training Area which was handed back on 31 December 2005 and had been o ...
between
Simmerath Simmerath () is a municipality in the Aachen (district), district of Aachen, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located approximately 20 km south-east of Aachen, near the border to Belgium. The administrative area was expanded in 1972 ...
- Rurberg (in the neighbouring region of
Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...
) to the west-northwest and
Schleiden Schleiden () is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies in the Eifel hills, in the district of Euskirchen (district), Euskirchen, and has 12,998 inhabitants as of 30 June 2017. Schleiden is connected by a tourist railway to Kall, German ...
-
Gemünd Gemünd is a municipality in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to ...
( Euskirchen district) to the east-southeast. It lies immediately above the Obersee, the main pre-basin (''Vorbecken'') of the
Rur Reservoir Rur or RUR may refer to: * Rur (river), a tributary of the Meuse, mostly in Germany * '' R.U.R.'', a 1920 Czech sci-fi play by Karel Čapek * Russian ruble, a currency (pre-1998 ISO 4217 code: RUR) * Ohaw, or rur, a Japanese soup dish * Rur., an ...
, in which the waters of the Urft and
Rur Rur or RUR may refer to: * Rur (river), a tributary of the Meuse, mostly in Germany * '' R.U.R.'', a 1920 Czech sci-fi play by Karel Čapek * Russian ruble, a currency (pre-1998 ISO 4217 code: RUR) * Ohaw, or rur, a Japanese soup dish * Rur., a ...
are impounded, and is situated within the
Eifel National Park The Eifel National Park () is the 14th national park in Germany and the first in North Rhine-Westphalia. The park was founded in 2004, and is classified as a "national park in development". Eifel National Park is part of the much larger High ...
, founded in 2004, which is in turn surrounded by the Hohes Venn-Eifel Nature Park.


Dam wall

The Urft dam is a curved
gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation. Gravity dams are designed so that each section of the dam is ...
with its convex side facing upstream and an earth embankment (an ''Intze Wedge'') on the reservoir side that reaches to about half the height of the dam wall. It is situated around 6.8 kilometres, as the crow flies, west-northwest of
Gemünd Gemünd is a municipality in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to ...
, the northern part of the town of
Schleiden Schleiden () is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies in the Eifel hills, in the district of Euskirchen (district), Euskirchen, and has 12,998 inhabitants as of 30 June 2017. Schleiden is connected by a tourist railway to Kall, German ...
in Euskirchen district. The Urft Dam was built between 1900 and 1905. The overall plan for the dam was developed by Prof. Dr. Otto Intze from
Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...
and built according to the so-called
Intze Principle The Intze Principle () is a name given to two engineering principles, both named after the hydraulic engineer, Otto Intze, (1843–1904). In the one case, the ''Intze Principle'' relates to a type of water tower; in the other, a type of dam. Intze ...
; Intze also led the construction. To build the dam wall a railway line was laid from Gemünd to the site to transport men and materiel. The barrage is made of
rubble stone Rubble masonry or rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Some medieval cathedral walls have outer shells of ashlar wit ...
composed of
greywacke Greywacke or graywacke ( ) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness (6–7 on Mohs scale), dark color, and Sorting (sediment), poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or sand-size Lith ...
and
slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
that was quarried locally and rises 58.5 metres above its base (''Gründungssohle''). At its crown, it is around 226 metres long and 6 metres wide, and is 50.5 metres wide at its foot. The Urft Dam was also the highest in Europe until the construction of the Bober Dam in the
Giant Mountains The Giant Mountains, Krkonoše, or Karkonosze (Czech: , , ), are a mountain range located in the north of the Czech Republic and the south-west of Poland, part of the Sudetes mountain system (part of the Bohemian Massif). The Czech–Polish bor ...
of
Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...
in 1912. On its completion, the Urft Dam became the model for many other projects at home and abroad after
water management Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. These resources can be either freshwater from natural sources, or water produced artificia ...
for
industrialization Industrialisation (British English, UK) American and British English spelling differences, or industrialization (American English, US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an i ...
became increasingly important after the end of the 19th century. The trial impoundment of the river began in November 1904, its use in water management started on 26 August 1905. North of the Urft Dam and separated from it by the base of a narrow peninsula is the
spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...
in the shape of an overflow weir with a maximum width of 91 metres which cascades down a total of 33 steps. Within the dam at an interval of 2.5 metres are vertical
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
-filled tubes that drain away the water that seeps into the dam wall. Several bottom outlet towers provide access to inspection walkways at two different depths that enable the state of Urft Dam to be checked. The lower inspection gallery runs along its base joint. From 1994 to 2000 the barrage was thoroughly renovated. Among other things, a problem with the uplift pressure was resolved. It was also given two new inspection galleries that were driven using blasting techniques, which have a total length of 320 metres, are an average of 3.10 metres high and 2.40 metres wide, as well as new sealing and drainage and numerous measuring devices. The Eifel-Rur Water Board celebrated the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Urft Dam on 26 August 2005. Since the Rur Dam was completed, the Urft dam not only impounds water on its upstream side, but also impounds the waters of the Rur Reservoir (also called the Obersee) on its downstream side up to a depth of 12 metres.


Reservoir

The Urft Reservoir (''Urftstausee'' or ''Urftsee''), which when full is 7.85 km long according to the ''Deutsche Grundkarte'' map, although the straight-line distance from the head of the lake to the dam is only about 3.9 km), has a total area of 2.16 km2 and holds up to 47.75 million cubic metres of water. The River Urft flows through it from east to west. It is located within the district of Euskirchen south of the
Kermeter The Kermeter is an upland region, up to , which is part of the Rureifel within the North Eifel in the districts of Aachen, Düren and Euskirchen in the southwestern part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. The Kermeter ridge is ...
ridge, west-northwest of
Gemünd Gemünd is a municipality in the district of Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to ...
in the borough of
Schleiden Schleiden () is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies in the Eifel hills, in the district of Euskirchen (district), Euskirchen, and has 12,998 inhabitants as of 30 June 2017. Schleiden is connected by a tourist railway to Kall, German ...
and slightly below the village of Malsbenden. Places from which the reservoir may be reached are Gemünd and Malsbenden or south through the Kermeter from
Heimbach Heimbach is a town in the district of Düren of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the river Rur, in the Eifel hills, approx. 20 km south of Düren. Heimbach has the smallest population of any town in North Rhin ...
. At the northwest end of the snaking waters of the Urft Reservoir and just below the Urft Dam is the ''Obersee'' lake, which acts as the main pre-basin for the Rur Reservoir and in which both the
Rur Rur or RUR may refer to: * Rur (river), a tributary of the Meuse, mostly in Germany * '' R.U.R.'', a 1920 Czech sci-fi play by Karel Čapek * Russian ruble, a currency (pre-1998 ISO 4217 code: RUR) * Ohaw, or rur, a Japanese soup dish * Rur., a ...
and the Urft are impounded. In the Urft Reservoir (), which is surrounded by wooded countryside, lies the island of Krummenauel (max ). The peninsulas at Altenberg (Auf dem Altenberg; max. ), Neffgesberg (max ) and Hosterauel (max ) jut out into the lake. They can also be reached on foot depending on the water level.


See also

* List of dams in Germany *
List of reservoirs by volume The classification of a reservoir by volume is not as straightforward as it may seem. As the name implies, water is held in reserve by a reservoir so it can serve a purpose. For example, in Thailand, reservoirs tend to store water from the wet sea ...


Literature

* ''Talsperren in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland'', Peter Franke, Wolfgang Frey, DNK – DVWK 1987,


References


External links


Information about the Urft Dam by the Eifel-Rur Water Board

Data sheet by the Eifel-Rur Water Board
(pdf file)
Urft Reservoir water level gauge

Dams of the Eifel

NRW dam information
(pdf file)



{{Authority control Dams in North Rhine-Westphalia RUrft Weirs Dams completed in 1905 1905 establishments in Germany