River
Apa River
380 km from source to mouth · Paraguay and Brazil.
Paraguay and BrazilFlows into Paraguay River3rd longest in Paraguay
In numbers
Length
380km
Average flow
130m³/s
Basin
15,498km²
Drop
288m
from 360 m to 72 m
Countries
2
The journey
From source to mouth
380 km of river and 4 stops on the way: 2 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmAmambai Mountainsat 360 m
- 105 kmBela Vista21,613 people
- 106 kmBella Vista5,653 people
- 176 kmPiripucu Rivertributary
- 301 kmPerdido Rivertributary
- 380 kmParaguay Riverat 72 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River
At the mouth it carries 125 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 20 seconds. It drops from 360 m to 72 m, 0.8 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 15,498 km², about the size of TL. 54,000 people live in it. Highest water: from December to January; lowest: from August to September. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- Bela VistaLargest city on its banks · 21,613 people
- Ponta Porã Airport (PMG)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 98 km from the cityCar hire at CGR airport (Campo Grande)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Apa River, month by month
Highest water: from December to January
Lowest water: from August to September. Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 94 m³/s in the lowest month to 180 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Apa River: the basin in numbers
15,498 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 54,000people live in the basin
- 3/km²people per km²
- 275maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,363mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 23.6°Caverage air temperature
- 3%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 26% Forest
- 2% Cropland
- 67% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Apa River: what you find on the way
- 27WaterfallsCascadas del Apa, Saltos del Apa, Cachoeira do Apa and 24 more
- 2Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Paraguay River
Argentina2,621 km2.7 m³/sTributaries (3)
Also: Piripucu River, Perdido River, Caracol River
In the same basin
Uruguay4,880 km16,000 m³/sUruguay RiverUruguay1,790 km4.6 m³/sIguazu RiverArgentina1,320 km1,700 m³/sPilcomayo RiverParaguay1,100 km200 m³/sBermejoParaguay1,060 km340 m³/sGrande RiverBrazil1,090 km2,000 m³/sTietê RiverBrazil1,150 km2,500 m³/sSalado RiverArgentina1,150 km15 m³/sParanaíba RiverBrazil900 km1,500 m³/sParanapanema RiverBrazil929 km1,200 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1285293) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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