The Brändbach Dam (german: Brändbachtalsperre), whose

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

is called the Kirnbergsee, is a small

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...

near

Bräunlingen Bräunlingen is a town in the district of Schwarzwald-Baar, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Breg, 4 km southwest of Donaueschingen. Sons and daughters of the city * Johann Baptist Weber (1756-1826), master bui ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

in the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

. It is used to generate electricity, for flood protection and for recreation. The lake lies within the Kirnbergsee

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

, which also includes surrounding areas. The dam impounds the Brändbach stream, which is part of the Breg catchment.

Construction

The barrier is a crooked

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation to oppose the horizontal pressure of water pushing against it. ...

made of concrete with

rubble stone Rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Analogously, some medieval cathedral walls are outer shells of ashlar with an inn ...

cladding. It was renovated in 2000 and was the first dam in Germany to be sealed with a plastic sealing sheet (

geomembrane A geomembrane is very low permeability synthetic membrane liner or barrier used with any geotechnical engineering related material so as to control fluid (liquid or gas) migration in a human-made project, structure, or system. Geomembranes are ...

) of PVC on the

reservoir side A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including controll ...

. In 1955 it had already been reinforced with concrete on the reservoir side.

Power

The power capacity of the hydropower station is 300 kW; it generates 0.7 GWh per year. It is operated by the town of Bräunlingen.

Reservoir

Since 2008, the Kirnbergsee has been assessed as of "excellent quality" according to EU bathing water standards.

References

Literature

*Dietmar Veyhle und Jürgen Köngeter: Die Brändbachtalsperre – Erstmalige Sanierung einer Staumauer mit einer Geomembran in Deutschland, Wasserwirtschaft 4/2003

External links