The catchment of the River Eden is in Cumbria, rising in the hills of the Lake District. It reaches the sea at the Solway Firth. The catchment is made up of the Rivers Eden, Eamont, Irthing, Petteril and the Caldew, as well as smaller rivers and streams draining into the Eden estuary.
Carlisle Case Study: Catchment Overview
The catchment has a history of flooding with Carlisle, Penrith and Appleby at greatest risk. The flood risks to people and property within the Eden catchment are from:
- Limited capacity at the Thacka beck culvert, which causes flood risk to Penrith
- The River Eden, which affects several urban areas including Carlisle, Kirkby Stephen, Appleby and Lower Crosby
- The Rivers Caldew and Petteril, which affect Carlisle
- Flooding from the River Eamont at Eamont Bridge
Topography
The upper parts of the catchment are dominated by the mountains of Skiddaw and the surrounding fells. The rocks here are hard and volcanic, soils are thin and the gradients of many tributaries are steep, so these watercourses have a rapid run-off response to flooding. In the lower reaches rivers flow through wide, shallow valleys.
The Eden channel itself has a steep gradient upstream of Kirkby Stephen. The head of the catchment is around 690m, falling rapidly to 160m at Kirkby Stephen. Below Kirkby Stephen, the Eden's glaciated valley opens out and the channel gradient reflects this change: the River Eden steadily loses height at around 1.8m per km to Appleby at 123m some 21km downstream.
From Appleby, the Eden continues through the lowland valley to Carlisle, 9m, falling at a fairly constant rate of 1.4m per km over its 80km journey from Appleby. The valley floor is over 2.5 km wide in many places. This forms extensive areas of floodplain washlands which are an important feature of the catchment.
Hydrology
In the Eden catchment there is a significant contrast in mean annual rainfall between the upstream and downstream ends of the catchment, related to the topography of the catchment.
- In the upland tributaries upstream of Penrith in the Eamont catchment, average annual rainfall exceeds 2800mm on Helvellyn
- Around Carlisle and on the coastal fringe, this is reduced to about 760mm
The average annual rainfall for England and Wales is 920mm.
Downloads
Catchment Overview Table
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Main hydrological sub-catchments
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Gradient of River Eden
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3 Comments
Alice
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18:51 - 24/01/11
This is brilliant - no where else can I find information like this! Thanks!
GA Member
08:35 - 25/01/11
Hi Alice - thank you for your positive comments - I'm pleased you've found this information so useful!
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molly
Guest
19:13 - 03/11/11
Really good information, thanks a lot!
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