River
Ubangi River
1,060 km from source to mouth · Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo and DR Congo.
Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo and DR CongoFlows into River Congo1st longest in Central African Republic
In numbers
Length
1,060km
Average flow
5,900m³/s
Basin
772,800km²
Drop
110m
from 397 m to 287 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
1,060 km of river and 14 stops on the way: 7 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmUeleat 397 m
- 2 kmUeletributary
- 2 kmMbomou Rivertributary
- 44 kmKotto Rivertributary
- 294 kmKouango36,575 people
- 299 kmRiver Ouakatributary
- 479 kmZongo48,658 people
- 482 kmBangui812,407 people
- 485 kmMpoko Rivertributary
- 553 kmLobaye Rivertributary
- 555 kmMongoumba9,985 people
- 618 kmBétou16,221 people
- 733 kmDongou10,188 people
- 776 kmImpfondo48,939 people
- 920 kmNgiri Rivertributary
- 1,060 kmRiver Congoat 287 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
Largest tributary of the Congo River in the region of Central Africa
At the mouth it carries 5,936 m³/s on average: 2.4 Olympic pools every second. It drops from 397 m to 287 m, 0.1 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 772,800 km², about the size of TR. 7.3 million people live in it. Highest water: from September to November; lowest: from February to March. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- BanguiLargest city on its banks · 812,407 people
- Bangui M'Poko International Airport (BGF)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 6 km from the city
- On the water9 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe2 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Ubangi River, month by month
Highest water: from September to November
Lowest water: from February to March. Best months to visit: from December to January.
From about 1,900 m³/s in the lowest month to 10,100 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
Ubangi River: the basin in numbers
647,233 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 7.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 11/km²people per km²
- 609maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,569mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 24.6°Caverage air temperature
- 15%protected areas
What covers the basin
- 52% Forest
- 2% Cropland
- 4% 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
Ubangi River: what you find on the way
- 2Rapids
- 9Ferry piersZinga and 8 more
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.9 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.
Photos
Ubangi River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
River Congo
Angola4,700 km41,800 m³/sTributaries (8)
DR Congo1,210 km1,500 m³/sjoins at km 2Mbomou RiverCentral African Republic800 km1,300 m³/sjoins at km 2Also: Kotto River, Lobaye River, River Ouaka, Mpoko River, Ngiri River, Lua
In the same basin
Republic of the Congo2,272 km12,000 m³/sKwango RiverDR Congo1,770 km2,700 m³/sLomami RiverDR Congo1,280 km3,000 m³/sSanghaRepublic of the Congo785 km2,500 m³/sEbola RiverDR Congo250 km320 m³/sLuvua RiverDR Congo350 km600 m³/sSankuru RiverDR Congo1,200 km1,500 m³/sAruwimi RiverDR Congo1,300 km1,600 m³/sRuzizi River
Burundi117 km400 m³/sDja RiverRepublic of the Congo523 km800 m³/sNearby
Rivers nearby
DR Congo1,300 km3,600 m³/s91 km awaySanghaRepublic of the Congo785 km2,500 m³/s131 km awayLulonga RiverDR Congo180 km1,800 m³/s148 km awayLukenie RiverDR Congo1,014 km1,700 m³/s251 km awayKwango RiverDR Congo1,770 km2,700 m³/s318 km awayKasai RiverRepublic of the Congo2,272 km12,000 m³/s342 km awayDja RiverRepublic of the Congo523 km800 m³/s303 km awayKwilu RiverDR Congo965 km1,200 m³/s319 km awayWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q171649) · 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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