#gardon river

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International Day of Action for Rivers 

The International Day of Action for Rivers is a day dedicated to solidarity – when diverse communities around the world come together with one voice to say that rivers matter. That communities having access to clean and flowing water matters. That everyone should have a say in decisions that affect their water and their lives. That it’s our time to stand up for these rights, now more than ever.

We’re celebrating the 25th Anniversary of this Day for Rivers by also highlighting the importance of Rivers to Biodiversity.

Rivers are key to restoring and maintaining the world’s biodiversity. River systems are the zone of Earth’s highest biological diversity – and also of our most intense human activity. This year the world meets for the 15th Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Freshwater ecosystems are the most degraded in the world and global action is needed to turn this around. Let’s make our voices heard.

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World Rivers Day

Almost every country around the world will have at least one river flowing through it. There are probably a number of other important waterways as well. To ensure that these important bodies of water are celebrated and appreciated as they should be, Rivers Day aims to remind people about just how important all of the waterways around the globe are to us.

The very first Rivers Day was celebrated in 2005 and since then it has been gaining in popularity with many events being organized around the world. In this same year, the United Nations also launched its Water for Life Decade, with the aim of increasing the awareness of the need for taking better care of the world’s waters.

Rivers Day was launched alongside this new initiative, all thanks to a proposal that was put forward by Mark Angelo, who was already an international river advocate.

History of Rivers Day

You might be wondering why we need a Rivers Day as everyone is already aware of numerous rivers around the world. That’s true; but what some people aren’t aware of is just how under threat some of them are.

There is a lot of human activity that causes pollution and damage to a number of the world’s important waterways, and this is dangerous for the people who regularly use the rivers as a source of water and transport, as well as the ecosystems that could be living in them.

The main aim of Rivers Day is to ensure that everyone is aware of the importance of river stewardship and that we all do what we can to limit the threats that could potentially endanger our rivers.

How to celebrate Rivers Day

There are so many ways we can all get involved with Rivers Day. You might be able to find a local event, such as a litter clean or a beach litter pick. There are loads of different events that aim to get people out and about being active in helping to improve local rivers.

Some events even focus on the wildlife that lives in our rivers. One example is to take part in a fish enhancement program that some local river organizations might be running near you.

It’s also a really good excuse to celebrate your local river as well. For instance, some people decide to take to the water to go sailing, kayaking, or canoeing. No matter how you want to enjoy the rivers, there is really no better day to enjoy them than on Rivers Day! You will be able to really appreciate what needs to go into keeping them clean and helping the local wildlife enjoy healthy habitats.

No matter how you choose to spend the next Rivers Day, we are sure that it will help you appreciate your local waterway a lot more than what you might do right now. If everyone did, imagine how clean our rivers could be!

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Pont du Gard, France (No. 11)

Napoleon III, who had a great admiration for all things Roman, visited the Pont du Gard in 1850 and took a close interest in it. He approved plans by the architect Charles Laisné to repair the bridge in a project which was carried out between 1855 and 1858, with funding provided by the Ministry of State. The work involved substantial renovations that included replacing the eroded stone, infilling some of the piers with concrete to aid stability and improving drainage by separating the bridge from the aqueduct. Stairs were installed at one end and the conduit walls were repaired, allowing visitors to walk along the conduit itself in reasonable safety.

There have been a number of subsequent projects to consolidate the piers and arches of the Pont du Gard. It has survived three serious floods over the last century; in 1958 the whole of the lower tier was submerged by a giant flood that washed away other bridges, and in 1998 another major flood affected the area. A further flood struck in 2002, badly damaging nearby installations.

The Pont du Gard was added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1985 on the criteria of "Human creative genius; testimony to cultural tradition; significance to human history". The description on the list states: "The hydraulic engineers and ... architects who conceived this bridge created a technical as well as artistic masterpiece."

Source: Wikipedia

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Pont du Gard, France (No. 10)

Although some of its stones were plundered for use elsewhere, the Pont du Gard remained largely intact. Its survival was due to its use as a toll bridge across the valley. In the 13th century the French king granted the seigneurs of Uzès the right to levy tolls on those using the bridge. The right later passed to the Bishops of Uzès. In return, they were responsible for maintaining the bridge in good repair. However, it suffered serious damage during the 1620s when Henri, Duke of Rohan made use of the bridge to transport his artillery during the wars between the French royalists and the Huguenots, whom he led. To make space for his artillery to cross the bridge, the duke had one side of the second row of arches cut away to a depth of about one-third of their original thickness. This left a gap on the lowest deck wide enough to accommodate carts and cannons, but severely weakened the bridge in the process.

In 1703 the local authorities renovated the Pont du Gard to repair cracks, fill in ruts and replace the stones lost in the previous century. A new bridge was built by the engineer Henri Pitot in 1743–47 next to the arches of the lower level, so that the road traffic could cross on a purpose-built bridge. The novelist Alexandre Dumas was strongly critical of the construction of the new bridge, commenting that "it was reserved for the eighteenth century to dishonour a monument which the barbarians of the fifth had not dared to destroy." The Pont du Gard continued to deteriorate and by the time Prosper Mérimée saw it in 1835 it was at serious risk of collapse from erosion and the loss of stonework.

Source: Wikipedia

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Pont du Gard, France (No. 7)

The Pont du Gard was constructed largely without the use of mortar or clamps. It contains an estimated 50,400 tons of limestone with a volume of some 21,000 m3 (740,000 cu ft); some of the individual blocks weigh up to 6 tons. Most of the stone was extracted from the local quarry of Estel located approximately 700 metres (2,300 ft) downstream, on the banks of the Gardon River. The coarse-grained soft reddish shelly limestone, known locally as "Pierre de Vers", lends itself very well to dimension stone production. The blocks were precisely cut to fit perfectly together by friction and gravity, eliminating the need for mortar. The builders also left inscriptions on the stonework conveying various messages and instructions. Many blocks were numbered and inscribed with the required locations, such as fronte dextra or fronte sinistra (front right or front left), to guide the builders.

The method of construction is fairly well understood by historians. The patron of the aqueduct – a rich individual or the city of Nîmes itself – would have hired a large team of contractors and skilled labourers. A surveyor or mensor planned the route using a groma for sighting, the chorobates for levelling, and a set of measuring poles five or ten Roman feet long. His figures and perhaps diagrams were recorded on wax tablets, later to be written up on scrolls. The builders may have used templates to guide them with tasks that required a high degree of precision, such as carving the standardised blocks from which the water conduit was constructed.

Source: Wikipedia

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Pont du Gard, France (No. 6)

The Gardon or Gard (Occitan and French: Gardon, Gard) is a river in southern France. It is the namesake of the department of Gard. Several of its tributaries are also called Gardon. It is 127.6 km (79.3 mi) long, and takes its source in the commune of Saint-Martin-de-Lansuscle, in the Cévennes mountain range. In its upper course it is also referred to as Gardon de Saint-Martin. From its furthest source, that of its tributary "Gardon de Saint-Jean", it is 133 km long. It flows into the Rhône (right-side tributary) at Comps, north of Beaucaire, across from Vallabrègues.

The Roman aqueduct Pont du Gard and the 16th-century Pont Saint-Nicolas are two historic bridges that cross the Gardon. The Gorges du Gardon, which ends at Pont Saint-Nicolas, is a popular recreation area for kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, and hiking.

The village of Collias, approximately 12 kilometres (7 mi) downriver from the Pont Saint-Nicolas, has several kayak and canoe rental agencies which will bus customers upriver to the Pont Saint-Nicolas (until the river level drops low in late June). Departing from Collias by kayak or canoe will bring you to the Pont du Gard in about an hour and one-half. It is possible to kayak or canoe under the Pont du Gard. Though, at times, the river is not high enough to allow for passage.

In September 2002 and again in December 2003, the Gardon had record level floods that damaged many of its bridges including the Pont Saint-Nicolas, which has since been fully restored. The river today shows few signs of the floods.

Source: Wikipedia

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Pont du Gard, France (No. 4)

It is estimated that the aqueduct supplied the city with around 40,000 cubic metres (8,800,000 imp gal) of water a day that took nearly 27 hours to flow from the source to the city. The water arrived in the castellum divisorum at Nîmes – an open, shallow, circular basin 5.5 m in diameter by 1 m deep. It would have been surrounded by a balustrade within some sort of enclosure, probably under some kind of small but elaborate pavilion. When it was excavated, traces of a tiled roof, Corinthian columns and a fresco decorated with fish and dolphins were discovered in a fragmentary condition. The aqueduct water entered through an opening 1.2 metres (3 ft 11 in) wide, and ten large holes in the facing wall, each 40 centimetres (16 in) wide, directed the water into the city's main water pipes. Three large drains were also located in the floor, possibly to enable the nearby amphitheatre to be flooded rapidly to enable naumachia (mock naval battles) to be held.

The spring still exists and is now the site of a small modern pumping station. Its water is pure but high in dissolved calcium carbonate leached out of the surrounding limestone. This presented the Romans with significant problems in maintaining the aqueduct, as the carbonates precipitated out of the water during its journey through the conduit. This caused the flow of the aqueduct to become progressively reduced by deposits of calcareous sinter. Another threat was posed by vegetation penetrating the stone lid of the channel. As well as obstructing the flow of the water, dangling roots introduced algae and bacteria that decomposed in a process called biolithogenesis, producing concretions within the conduit. It required constant maintenance by circitores, workers responsible for the aqueduct's upkeep, who crawled along the conduit scrubbing the walls clean and removing any vegetation.

Much of the Nîmes aqueduct was built underground, as was typical of Roman aqueducts. It was constructed by digging a trench in which a stone channel was built and enclosed by an arched roof of stone slabs, which was then covered with earth. Some sections of the channel are tunnelled through solid rock. In all, 35 km (22 mi) of the aqueduct was constructed below the ground. The remainder had to be carried on the surface through conduits set on a wall or on arched bridges. Some substantial remains of the above-ground works can still be seen today, such as the so-called "Pont Rue" that stretches for hundreds of metres around Vers and still stands up to 7.5 m (25 ft) high. Other surviving parts include the Pont de Bornègre, three arches carrying the aqueduct 17 m (56 ft) across a stream; the Pont de Sartanette, near the Pont du Gard, which covers 32 m (105 ft) across a small valley; and three sections of aqueduct tunnel near Sernhac, measuring up to 66 m (217 ft) long. However, the Pont du Gard is by far the best preserved section of the entire aqueduct.

Source: Wikipedia