White horse lure

White horse lick Upper Sorbian Běły Šepc
The White Schöps near Daubitz
Data
Water body code	DE: 58248
Location	County of Görlitz, Saxony, Germany
River system	Elbe
Drainage via	Schwarzer Schöps → Spree → Havel → Elbe → North Sea
Source	Near Deutsch-Paulsdorf 51° 5′ 31″ N, 14° 50′ 10″ O51.09194444444414.836041666667301.5
Source Height	301.5 mabove sea level
Mouth	Into the Black Schöps near Reichwalde51.37083333333314.664583333333125.3Coordinates 51° 22′ 15″ N, 14° 39′ 52″ O 51° 22′ 15″ N, 14° 39′ 52″ O51.37083333333314.664583333333125.3
Mouth height	125.3 mabove sea level
Height difference	176,2 m
Discharge at gauge Kringelsdorf[1] AEo: 367 km² Location: 200 m above the estuary	NNQ (09.12.2006) MNQ 1985/2005 MQ 1985/2005 Mq 1985/2005 MHQ1985/2005 HHQ (02.01.1987)	1.49 m³/s 3.04 m³/s 5.06 m³/s 13.8 l/(skm²) 22.1 m³/s 82.4 m³/s
Right tributaries	Black ditch, Raklitza
Medium-sized towns	Goerlitz
Communities	Markersdorf, Schöpstal, Kodersdorf, Horka, Hähnichen, Rietschen, Boxberg/O.L.

The White Schöps, Upper Sorbian Běły Šepc, is an eastern tributary of the Black Schöps in the Görlitz district of Saxony, Germany. It is part of the Elbe river system, reaching the Spree and Havel rivers via the Black Schöps.

Course

The river rises in the north of the Great Nun Forest, which extends about 15 km west-southwest of Görlitz. Its source lies south-southwest of Deutsch-Paulsdorf between Reichenbach/O.L. in the north and Bernstadt auf dem Eigen in the south. A few kilometres to the west the Schwarze Schöps rises. From its source, the White Schöps runs in a predominantly northwesterly direction between the Lusatian Neisse in the east and the Spree in the west.

New riverbed of the White Schöps between Neuliebel and Reichwalde

Initially a small meadow stream, the Weiße Schöps flows in a northeasterly direction towards Görlitz. It passes the city to the west and flows through the municipality of Schöpstal, whose namesake it is. The river then runs in a northerly direction through the municipalities of Kodersdorf, Horka and Hähnichen before gradually turning west. From the Geheeger “water parts” flows the Schwarzgraben as a right tributary.

Arriving in Rietschen, it takes in the Raklitza. Afterwards, the White Schöps flows completely canalised along the northern edge of the Reichwalde open-cast mine, whose purified mine water it receives, in a westerly direction into the municipality of Boxberg/O.L. and flows between the districts of Kringelsdorf and Boxberg into the Black Schöps, which flows in from the south-east. Before the relocation of its riverbed for the benefit of open-cast mining, which took place in three construction phases between 1977 and 1991, the mouth was located between Reichwalde and Kringelsdorf.

Relocation of the river bed

To allow for the northeastern continuation of the Reichwalde open pit mine, the riverbed was relocated again between 2011 and 2014.^[2][3] From Rietschen, the White Schöps runs via Werda, Neuliebel, Hammerstadt and Altliebel (Nappatsch) south past the open pit, with part of the river course being restored to its natural state. After completion of the relocation, the mouth into the Black Schöps took place slightly south of the original mouth before Reichwalde.

Aerial panorama of the Weißer Schöps in Rietschen between Altliebel (left) and Neuliebel (right)

Individual references

1. ↑ Hydrological manual.(PDF; 637 kB) Part 3 – Gewässerkundliche Hauptwerte. Freistaat Sachsen – Landesamt für Umwelt und Geologie, p. 69, retrieved25 December 2017.
2. ↑ Regina Weiß: A new bed for the White Schöps. In: Lausitzer Rundschau, local newspaper for Weißwasser and Niesky. 10 July 2008. (Online article)
3. ↑ http://corporate.vattenfall.de/newsroom/pressemeldungen/2014/der-weibe-schops-hat-sein-neues-bett-in-besitz-genommen/

Literature

• Görlitz und seine Umgebung (= Values of the German Homeland. Volume 54). 1.Edition. Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, Weimar 1994, ISBN 3-7400-0932-2. (p. 41ff.)

Web links

Commons: White horse mackerel– Collection of pictures, videos and audio files