River
Black River
910 km from source to mouth · Vietnam.
VietnamFlows into Red River3rd longest in Vietnam
In numbers
Length
910km
Average flow
1,400m³/s
Basin
52,900km²
Drop
1,188m
from 1,197 m to 9 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
910 km of river and 9 stops on the way: 5 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,197 m
- 458 kmLai Châu Dam
- 619 kmNam Mutributary
- 628 kmSơn La Dam
- 628 kmÍt Ong16,153 people
- 810 kmHoa Binh Dam
- 812 kmHòa Bình105,260 people
- 841 kmXuân Trùng11,506 people
- 849 kmTrại Khoai11,833 people
- 869 kmCổ Đô70,706 people
- 910 kmRed Riverat 9 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in China and northwestern Vietnam
At the mouth it carries 1,419 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.8 seconds. It drops from 1,197 m to 9 m, 1.3 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 52,900 km², about the size of BA. 3.5 million people live in it. Highest water: August; lowest: from January to April. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (21% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- Hòa BìnhLargest city on its banks · 105,260 people
- Noi Bai International Airport (HAN)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 66 km from the city
- On the water2 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From November to MarchThe best months to visit
Black River, month by month
Highest water: August
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from November to March.
From about 190 m³/s in the lowest month to 3,900 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
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The basin
Black River: the basin in numbers
51,221 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 3.5millionpeople live in the basin
- 69/km²people per km²
- 1,128maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,525mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 19.4°Caverage air temperature
- 11%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 9.5km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 17% Forest
- 9% Cropland
- 18% Pasture
- 2% Towns and cities
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
Black River: what you find on the way
- 3Weirs
- 2Waterfalls
- 2Ferry piers
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 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.
Photos
Black River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Red RiverVietnam1,149 km900 m³/sTributaries (2)
Also: Nam Mu, Babian Jiang
In the same basin
LaosWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1922260) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth 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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