The Trench

The name of the Geul is very old. The current name is first mentioned in 1675, before that many other names were in use. The proper name Geul is said to be derived from the species name geule, with the meaning of narrow and deep water. It would have to be deeply incised in the landscape. And that, of course, fits very well with this river.
The Geul enters the Netherlands south of Epen. Two-thirds of the river (about 36 km) is located in the Netherlands. The width of the valley floor varies from less than 100 metres in Belgium to more than 600 metres in the Netherlands. Over the centuries, the Geul has formed many meanders with eroding banks. The meanders are more or less fixed because the Geul has cut deeply into the surrounding landscape in the past.
The Geul is very shallow, at normal water level the depth varies between three and eight decimeters. Only in the case of watermills, where the water is dammed, can the depth be up to one and a half to two metres.
The Geul, together with its tributaries, belongs to the basin of the Meuse. A river basin is the area that drains into a particular river and its tributaries.
The drop (= difference in height between two places) between the source in the Belgian municipality of Raeren (280 m above sea level) and the outlet in the Meuse near the Dutch municipality of Meerssen (38 m above sea level) is 242 metres.
The Geul has a length of 56 km from source to mouth, so the slope (the drop per km) is 242 m / 56 km = 4.3 m/km.
The Geul is a rain river and has an uneven regime (= fluctuations in the water discharge of a river over the course of a year). The fluctuating water levels are related to the highly variable amount of precipitation in the catchment area.
The annual average flow rate (= the number of m³ of water that passes at a certain point per second) is 1 m³/sec at Epen and increases to 3 m³/sec at Meerssen.

Biker