Landwehrbach

Castrop-Rauxel, Herne

The Landwehrbach has its source in Merklinde, a south-eastern district of the city of Castrop-Rauxel. From here, this small river flows through the district of Castrop-Rauxel, avoids the Rhein-Herne Canal and finally discharges into the Emscher in the city of Herne.

Along its length of 9 km and within its 17.1 km² watershed, it has several tributaries, which drain large sections of the district of Castrop-Rauxel and parts of Herne.

Within the city of Castrop-Rauxel, the Landwehrbach is covered for large sections. As part of the Emscher renaturation, environmental restoration is taking place in two sections: Castrop-Rauxel has already carried out regeneration of the Landwehrbach from kilometre 9.91 to 8.50 and constructed an underground wastewater drain. Restoration from kilometre 8.50 to 6.92 within the urban area will take place from now until 2012.

One challenge is the location of the river in the city centre of Castrop-Rauxel. Here a partial opening up of the river will make 'water' accessible. A wastewater drain will be built for this section and the Emschergenossenschaft [Emscher Cooperative] has already undertaken environmental regeneration of sections of the Landwehrbach. Prior to this, the headwaters of the Roßbach in Herne were already renaturised in the 1980s.

During the IBA, a closed section of the wastewater drain on land belonging to the Dienstleistungs-, Gewerbe- und Landschaftsparks Erin [Erin industrial park] was opened up and a flood channel created. This gave rise to an accessible river course which has both creative quality and the function of a clean watercourse which discharges the water volume via the Erin axis. On the western edge of the Erin site, the Landwehrbach absorbs the waters of the Roßbach before continuing on to the Emscher. No restoration has yet been carried out along this last, six-kilometre section. Further restoration of the Landwehrbach system is, however, being considered in small sections up to its mouth.