page_title: Lake Constance
section_title: Floods
hierarchical_section_title: Lake Constance / Geography / Floods
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Hochwasser im Rheinholz am 5.6.2013 im Hintergrund sieht man das Deutsche Bodenseeufer. Panorama aus 3 Fotos. &#160;This media shows the nature reserve in Vorarlberg with the ID 8047. (commons, de)
context_page_description: Lake Constance refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: the Obersee or Upper Lake Constance, the Untersee or Lower Lake Constance, and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein. These waterbodies lie within the Lake Constance Basin, which is part of the Alpine Foreland and through which the Rhine flows.
  The lake is situated where Germany, Switzerland, and Austria meet. Its shorelines lie in the German states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, the Swiss cantons of St. Gallen, Thurgau, and Schaffhausen, and the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. The Rhine flows into the lake from the south, with its original course forming the Austro-Swiss border, and has its outflow on the Lower Lake where — except for Schaffhausen — it forms the German-Swiss border until the city of Basel.
  The most populous cities on the lake are Constance, Friedrichshafen, Radolfzell am Bodensee, Bregenz, and Lindau. The largest islands are Reichenau in the Lower Lake, and Lindau and Mainau in the Upper Lake.
context_section_description: A 100-year flood around June 1999 (Pfingsthochwasser 1999) raised the level about 2 metres above normal, flooding harbors and many shoreline buildings and hotels.
  In late August 2005, heavy rain raised the level by more than 70 cm in a few days. The rains caused widespread flooding and washed out highways and railroads.
caption: Flooding on the shore of Lake Constance, May 2013
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