River
Senne
103 km from source to mouth · Belgium.
BelgiumFlows into Dyle / Dijle4th longest in Belgium
In numbers
Length
103km
Average flow
5.5m³/s
Basin
1,164km²
Drop
100m
from 54 m to -46 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
103 km of river and 47 stops on the way: 38 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmNaastat 54 m
- 0 kmHorrues2,416 people
- 10 kmRebecq-Rognon10,049 people
- 17 kmQuenast3,226 people
- 24 kmTubize25,914 people
- 25 kmClabecq4,782 people
- 27 kmLembeek7,689 people
- 33 kmHalle39,096 people
- 35 kmBuizingen6,369 people
- 37 kmHuizingen3,172 people
- 40 kmLot4,698 people
- 40 kmBeersel23,228 people
- 43 kmZuun4,709 people
- 44 kmRuisbroek6,043 people
- 46 kmDrogenbos4,843 people
- 47 kmNegenmanneke6,915 people
- 48 kmZuunbeek - Zuenbeektributary
- 48 kmLinkebeektributary
- 48 kmUccle82,929 people
- 50 kmForest56,254 people
- 53 kmAnderlecht160,553 people
- 54 kmSaint-Gilles50,221 people
- 55 kmMolenbeek-Saint-Jean97,037 people
- 55 kmÉcluse du Midi - Zuidersluis
- 57 kmBrussels195,546 people
- 58 kmKoekelberg21,984 people
- 59 kmSaint-Josse-ten-Noode27,366 people
- 60 kmJette52,490 people
- 63 kmSchaerbeek132,761 people
- 66 kmEvere41,667 people
- 70 kmDiegem5,001 people
- 72 kmMaelbeek - Maalbeektributary
- 73 kmMachelen12,252 people
- 74 kmVilvoorde44,015 people
- 77 kmHavendoklaanbrug
- 78 kmSluistoren
- 81 kmMaalbeektributary
- 82 kmHumbeek4,464 people
- 83 kmZemst23,325 people
- 86 kmMechelen86,921 people
- 90 kmKapelle-op-den-Bos8,859 people
- 92 kmRamsdonk1,500 people
- 94 kmTisselt3,428 people
- 98 kmBlaasveld4,367 people
- 99 kmWillebroek22,808 people
- 100 kmHazewinkel0.7 km²
- 102 kmZennegat bridge
- 103 kmBoom15,810 people
- 103 kmDyle / Dijleat -46 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Belgium
At the mouth it carries 5.5 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 455 seconds. It drops from 54 m to -46 m, 1.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 1,164 km², about the size of MQ. 1.7 million people live in it. Highest water: from December to January. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- BrusselsLargest city on its banks · 195,546 people
- Brussels Airport (BRU)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 11 km from the cityCar hire at BRU airport (Zaventem)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water20 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Senne, month by month
Highest water: from December to January
Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 6.7 m³/s in the lowest month to 25 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
Senne: the basin in numbers
1,169 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.7millionpeople live in the basin
- 1,435/km²people per km²
- 77maverage altitude of the basin
- 810mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 10.1°Caverage air temperature
- 3%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
What covers the basin
- 3% Forest
- 24% Cropland
- 8% Pasture
- 55% 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
Senne: what you find on the way
- 16Weirs
- 19LocksSluis Lembeek, Sluis Halle, Sluis nr 8 - Lot and 16 more
- 3WaterfallsCascade de Coeurcq
- 3Boat ramps
- 10Ferry piersSainctelette, Quai des Péniches - Akenkaai, Pont Van Praet - Van Praet brug and 7 more
- 5MarinasDok 3, yachtclub Volante and 3 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Senne in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Hazewinkelkm 660.7km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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
Senne in pictures




Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Dyle / DijleTributaries (7)
Also: Maelbeek - Maalbeek, Woluwe, Sennette, Zuunbeek - Zuenbeek, Maalbeek, Brainette, Linkebeek
In the same basin
Nearby
Rivers nearby
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q845920) · 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 |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.