Aude (river)

Etymology

The Aude knew multiple names before adopting her final name which appears for the first time, in 1342, in the Cartulaire roussillonnais of Alart, which evoked the Auda or the Ribera d' Aude . Previously, various ancient authors had named the river Narbôn (Polybe), Atax (Strabon, Pline Old the, Pomponius Mela). With the the Middle Ages, to designate the Aude, one employed the terms Adice , again Atax , Fluvium Atacis , Flumine Atace , Flumen Ataze or Juxta Aditum fluvium

Geography

The river takes its source in the solid mass of the Carlit to the Lac of Aude with: 2185 m of altitude, in the commune of the Angles (department of the the Eastern Pyrenees) and are thrown in the Mediterranean, close to Narbonne, with the Grau of Vendres (close to the Hut-with-Fleury), with the limit of the departments of the Aude and the Herault.

Pyrenean solid mass with Carcassonne, its course is directed Southern - North. The Aude then presents the caractérisques ones of a river of mountain, it crosses the Capcir, feeds several storage reservoirs (Matemale, Puyvalador), is inserted in throats (those of Saint-Georges are most picturesque) through old grounds. Starting from Axat, after having received the contribution of the Aiguette out of Right Bank and the Rébenty out of left bank, the river crosses the bars Calcaire S of the pre-Pyrenees (ravelled Pierre-Lily) and sprinkles a series of small communes Quillan, Espéraza, Couiza, Alet-the-Baths and Limoux. Downstream from the large medieval city, the Aude inflects towards the East. This elbow results from a captures, the Aude having formerly run in the valley of the Hers, index of overdeepening by a old Hydrologie following the rising of the the Pyrenees.

Starting from Carcassonne, the river, being assagissant, follows the large tectonic furrow which separates the the Pyrenees (Corbières) from the Massif Central (Black Montagne), receiving these reliefs a series of affluents whose principal ones are the Orbieu out of Right Bank, the Money-Double and the Cesse out of left bank. From now on, gone along by the channel of the South, sinuant in the middle of the Vine S, the Aude penetrates in the broad alluvial plain of Narbonne, partly conquered on the Gulf of Lions and strewn with old sites pond S, before throwing itself in the the Mediterranean.

Hydrography

The Aude presents a catchment Area of: 6074 km ² which extends, unequally, on 6 departments: the Aude, the the Eastern Pyrenees, the Ariège, the Haute-Garonne, the Tarn, the Herault (the Haute-Garonne and the Tarn are concerned only by the course of the affluents or tributaries of a tributary of the river). Before Carcassonne, the Aude receives as dependant on the rivers low length which often show characteristics of Torrent S of mountain From the prefecture of the department éponyme, therefore in her low valley, the river receives rivers more powerful, originating, for the majority of them, of the Black Montagne. Upstream towards the downstream, principal the Affluent S of the Aude is:

the Lladura or Lladure (16 km) out of left bank with Réal
the Galbe (14 km) out of left bank with Puyvalador
the Bruyante (14 km) out of left bank with Usson-the-Baths
the Aiguette (20 km) out of Right Bank with Holy-Dove-on-Watches for
the Rébenty (34 km) out of left bank with Saint-Martin-Lily
the Saint-Bertrand (19 km) out of Right Bank with Quillan
the Ruisseau of F or Faby (14 km) out of left bank with Espéraza
the Sals (20 km) out of Right Bank with Couiza
the Saint-Polycarpe (13 km) out of Right Bank with Limoux
the Corneilla ((22 km) out of left bank with Limoux
the Cougaing (17 km) out of left bank with Limoux
the Sou (30 km) out of left bank with Cépie
the Lauquet (37 km) out of Right Bank with Couffoulens
the Fresquel (63 km) out of left bank with Carcassonne
the Orbiel (41 km) out of left bank with Trèbes
the Money-Double (37 km) out of left bank with Redorte
the Ognon (23 km) out of left bank with Olonzac
the Orbieu (84 km) out of Right Bank with Saint-Nazaire-in Aude
the Cesse (54 km) out of left bank with Saint-Marcel-on-Aude

Hydrology

In her higher course, the Aude presents a nivo-rain mode (with a maximum of spring related to the snow melt). Then, starting from Carcassonne where its medium flow reaches 20,4 m ³ /s, the mode becomes almost exclusively rain (the flow in Grau de Vendres, at the time of its meeting with the Mediterranean, borders 50 m ³ /s).

The Aude is thus characterized, in her lower course, by a pluvio-nival mode of southernmost type to the severe low water levels during the summer period (9,8 m ³ /s in August with Moussan, in its low alluvial plain, not far from its mouth, against an annual average of 44,2 m ³ /s). The strong autumnal rains allow a fast increase of the flow which reaches its maximum in February (78,6 m ³ /s) and remains constant in spring thanks to the snow melt of the Pyrenean solid mass.

Risings of 1999

Exceptional and brutal precipitations, so characteristic of the Mediterranean Climate during the autumnal season, can be at the origin of Crue S devastators like those of the 12 - November 13rd 1999. The assessment of these last, which affected the low valley of the Aude, was catastrophic: 26 victims, of the hundreds of people hélitreuillées or recovered by nautical means, of the thousands of dwellings, companies and more or less damaged commercial premises: 5000 hectares of vines more or less devastated, the roadway system, networks of drinking water and cleansing seriously reached. The extent of the catastrophe is explained by the conjugation of two phenomena: precipitations Orage use of a width ever equalized (up to 620 mm fallen in two days with Lézignan-Corbières, i.e. more than the annual total) and strong a Tempête on the Gulf of Lions which involved a rise of 80 cm of the sea level and prevented, combined with strong the Houle and the Vent, the good flow of water already inflated by the pouring rain

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