River
Purari River
470 km from source to mouth · Papua New Guinea.
Papua New GuineaFlows into Gulf of Papua2nd longest in Papua New Guinea
In numbers
Length
470km
Average flow
1,600m³/s
Basin
28,738km²
Drop
1,430m
from 1,430 m to 0 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
470 km of river and 0 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,430 m
- 470 kmGulf of Papuaat 0 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Papua New Guinea
At the mouth it carries 1,564 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 1.6 seconds. It drops from 1,430 m to 0 m, 3.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 28,738 km², about the size of AL. 1.6 million people live in it. Highest water: from June to September. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- IhuLargest city on its banks · 712 people
- Kerema Airport (KMA)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 42 km from the city
- From June to OctoberThe best months to visit
Purari River, month by month
Highest water: from June to September
Best months to visit: from June to October.
From about 1,300 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,000 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
Purari River: the basin in numbers
31,683 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.6millionpeople live in the basin
- 51/km²people per km²
- 1,615maverage altitude of the basin
- 3,101mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 18.6°Caverage air temperature
- 9%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 78% Forest
- 4% Cropland
- 1% 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.
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.
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1724008) · 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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