Elbe River - Czechia

Basic Information
Site Name
Elbe River
Short name
Elbe CZ
Country
Czechia
Site Manager
Site Description
The Elbe River is one of the major rivers in Central Europe. It springs at an altitude of about 1,400 meters in the Giant Mountains in the north of the Czech Republic. It flows through eastern, middle, and northern Bohemia, and its catchment area includes most of Bohemia. The Elbe traverses the northeastern part of Germany and flows into the North Sea. The total river length is 1,094 km. In the Czech Republic, the monitored river length is 371 km and the catchment area includes 49,933 km2. The average flow at the Czech-German borders is 311 m3 s-1. Many weirs dam the watercourse of Elbe River in the Czech Republic. This artificial intervention is crucial for the characteristics of the riverbed, its width, depth, and bottom substrate. The width of the riverbed in the monitored area ranges from approx. 10 m on the upper course to approx. 150 m on the lower course and river sections above the weirs. The depth of the river varies from 0.5 m in the upper parts and below the weirs to more than 5 m in the lower course and above the weirs. The bottom substrate varies from the stony, gravelly, and sandy fractions in shallow and fast-running sections to muddy/silty fractions in slow-running sections above the weirs. The main tributaries of the Elbe in Bohemia are Metuje, Orlice, Jizera, Ploučnice, Vltava, Ohře and Bílina rivers. The catchment area is densely populated. The river is exposed to various sources of pollution (organic, agricultural, and industrial) and hydromorphological pressures (straightening, shortening, regulation of meanders, and fragmentation of river continuity). There are seven permanent monitoring sites on the Elbe River in the Czech Republic: Děčín (river kilometer 747.9), Litoměřice (796.9), Obříství (842.1), Lysá nad Labem (878.8), Valy (954.7), Hradec Králové (994.4) and Vestřev (1051). The Elbe basin long term environmental research has been organised by the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic and cooperation institutions since 1993. More than 600 physicochemical parameters, including sensory properties of water, are regularly monitored in at least nine different types of matrices (water, sediment, periphyton, floats, sedimentable floats, benthos, fish tissues, fish fry, and Dreissena polymorpha tissue) and using passive samplers. Among the main monitored characteristics belong balances of macroelements (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus), concentrations of inorganic salts, heavy metals and various organic pollutants such as pesticides, personal care products (including drugs) and other anthropogenic substances in the environment. Characteristics such as abundance and species composition are regularly monitored in fish, macrophytes, macrozoobenthos, phytobenthos and plankton.
Last modified
2024-09-04 13:09:46

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General Characteristics and Status
Site Status
Operational
Year Established
1993
Observed properties
Climate
Precipitation Sum:    725 mm
Temperature Mean: 7.97 °C
Standard Reference Period: 1991 - 2020
Affiliation and Network Specific Information
Affiliation
CZ-LTERThis site is a verified "CZ-LTER" member.
ILTERThis site is a verified "ILTER" member.
LTER EuropeThis site is a verified "LTER Europe" member.
Projects
Photos
Map of monitoring sites
Map of monitoring sites
Elbe River - Melnik
Elbe River - Melnik
Elbe River - Neratovice
Elbe River - Neratovice
Elbe River - Hradec Kralove
Elbe River - Hradec Kralove
Geographic
Centroid/Representative Coordinates

Latitude: 50.192259 Longitude: 14.672919

Size
ca. 499.00ha
Elevation (average)
227.50msl
Elevation (min)
120.00msl
Elevation (max)
335.00msl
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Site information [.json]

Centroid/representative coordinates [.shp] [.kml]
Bounding Box [.shp] [.kml]
Boundaries [.shp] [.kml]