River Salwarpe

The River Salwarpe is a 20.4 miles (32.8 km) long river in Worcestershire, England. It is a left bank tributary of the River Severn, which it joins near Hawford.[1][2]

River Salwarpe
River Salwarpe in Vines Park, Droitwich
Location within Worcestershire
Location
CountryEngland
CountiesWorcestershire
Physical characteristics
Mouth 
 • location
River Severn
 • coordinates
52.2388°N 2.2334°W / 52.2388; -2.2334
Length32.8 km (20.4 mi)
Basin size196 km2 (76 sq mi)
Discharge 
 • locationHarford Hill
 • average1.35 m3/s (48 cu ft/s)

Course

The Salwarpe is formed by the confluence of the Battlefield and Spadesbourne Brooks in Bromsgrove, it then passes Stoke Prior, Upton Warren, Wychbold, Droitwich.[1] Downstream of Droitwich, it passes Salwarpe, and then meets the River Severn, near Hawford.[2]

Andrew Yarranton attempted unsuccessfully to make it navigable in the 1660s, but in the 21st century a stretch of the river in Droitwich was canalized to link the Barge and Junction sections of the Droitwich Canal.[3][4]

Tributaries include the Elmbridge, Hadley and Hen brooks.[1][2]

Hydrology

The flow of the Salwarpe has been measured in its lower reaches at Harford Hill since 1958. The long-term record shows that the catchment of 184 square kilometres (71 sq mi) to the gauging station yielded an average flow of 1.35 cubic metres per second (48 cu ft/s).[5] The highest river level recorded at the station occurred in January 1960 with a height of 2.69 metres (8 ft 10 in), giving a corresponding flow of 39 cubic metres per second (1,400 cu ft/s).[6]

The Salwarpe catchment upstream of the station has an average annual rainfall of 666 millimetres (26.2 in) and a maximum altitude of 294 metres (965 ft) at Beacon Hill, in Lickey Hills Country Park at its north-eastern edge. Land use is primarily agricultural arable and grassland.[7]

Water quality

The Environment Agency measure water quality of the river systems in England. Each is given an overall ecological status, which may be one of five levels: high, good, moderate, poor and bad. There are several components that are used to determine this, including biological status, which looks at the quantity and varieties of invertebrates, angiosperms and fish, and chemical status, which compares the concentrations of various chemicals against known safe concentrations. Chemical status is rated good or fail.[8]

The water quality of the Salwarpe and its tributaries was as follows in 2016.

SectionEcological StatusChemical StatusOverall StatusLengthCatchment
Battlefield Bk - source to conf Spadesbourne Bk[9] Moderate Good Moderate 10.4 kilometres (6.5 mi) 19.1 square kilometres (7.4 sq mi)
Spadesbourne Bk - source to conf Battlefield Bk[10] Moderate Good Moderate 5.1 kilometres (3.2 mi) 10 square kilometres (3.9 sq mi)
Salwarpe - source to conf Elmbridge Bk[11] Poor Good Poor 21.9 kilometres (13.6 mi) 58.3 square kilometres (22.5 sq mi)
Elmbridge Bk - source to conf R Salwarpe[12] Poor Good Poor 10.1 kilometres (6.3 mi) 31.5 square kilometres (12.2 sq mi)
Hadley Bk - source to conf R Salwarpe[13] Poor Good Poor 26.4 kilometres (16.4 mi) 55.3 square kilometres (21.4 sq mi)
Salwarpe - conf Elmbridge Bk to conf R Severn[14] Poor Good Poor 10.8 kilometres (6.7 mi) 21.8 square kilometres (8.4 sq mi)

The water quality of the all the riverine waterbodies in the lower catchment have regressed from moderate in 2009 to poor in 2016. The two upper tributaries remaining at moderate. Chemical quality is good in the Salwarpe and its four monitored tributaries.

See also
  • List of rivers in England

References
  1. "Salwarpe - source to conf Elmbridge Bk". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  2. "Salwarpe - conf Elmbridge Bk to conf R Severn". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  3. "Yarranton, Andrew" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  4. "Restoration of the Droitwich Canals Non Technical Summary" (PDF). British waterways. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2010. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  5. "54011 - Salwarpe at Harford Hill Daily Flow Data". National Rivers Flow Archive. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  6. "54011 - Salwarpe at Harford Hill Peak Flow Data (Annual Maximum)". National Rivers Flow Archive. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  7. "54011 - Salwarpe at Harford Hill – Catchment Info". National Rivers Flow Archive. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
  8. "Glossary (see Biological quality element; Chemical status; and Ecological status)". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency. 6 November 2017.
  9. "Battlefield Bk - source to conf Spadesbourne Bk". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency.
  10. "Spadesbourne Bk - source to conf Battlefield Bk". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency.
  11. "Salwarpe - source to conf Elmbridge Bk". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency.
  12. "Elmbridge Bk - source to conf R Salwarpe". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency.
  13. "Hadley Bk - source to conf R Salwarpe". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency.
  14. "Salwarpe - conf Elmbridge Bk to conf R Severn". Catchment Data Explorer. Environment Agency.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.