Low water

Just as floods, low flows are natural, evident events that cannot be avoided. Low water may considerably restrict navigation on the Rhine. The performance of hydropower plants may equally be reduced in times of low discharge. Besides, low flows often go hand in hand with high temperatures, leading to reduced oxygen content which may have negative impact on the ecosystem. Since the Conference of Rhine Ministers 2013 the Rhine States are giving a lot of attention to the topic of low flows. The programme ‘Rhine 2040’ strives to mitigate the negative effects of low water in the basin.

The ICPR (Expert group “Low water”) is assessing past low flows events (see for example the reports on the extreme low water events 2018 and 2022 and on low water 2011) and investigating the consequences of low water on different uses of the Rhine as well as implemented measures. The group is also looking at future changes in water availability (see information on climate change).

The international symposium „Low flows in the Rhine catchment” took place on September 20-21, 2017 in Basel. In 2018 the ICPR drew up and published a major inventory of low water conditions and situations of the Rhine (see report 248 and summary).

With the uniform Rhine-wide ICPR low water monitoring system, current low water events can be directly compared and classified and possible changes in the low water discharge can be detected. The ICPR low water monitoring can be consulted here in the form of a complete catchment area map of the Rhine with information on the Rhine gauges (see also report 261).