page_title: Durance
section_title: Middle section: from Serre-Ponçon to Mirabeau
hierarchical_section_title: Durance / Hydrography / Middle section: from Serre-Ponçon to Mirabeau
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Vallée de la durance au niveau de la commune des Mées, secteur du plan, prise de vue à partir du plateau de Ganagobie English: Valley of Durance river near village of Les Meés, view from the Ganagobie plateau towards the east across the Valensole plateau. In the backgound of the image the mountains of the Western Alps are visble. Deutsch: Tal der Durance nahe dem Dorf Les Meés, Blick vom Ganagobie-Plateau nach Osten über das Valensole-Plateau. Im Bildhintergrund sind die Berge der westlichen Alpen zu sehen.
context_page_description: The Durance is a major river in south-eastern France. A left tributary of the Rhône, it is 323.2 km long. Its drainage basin is 14,472 km².
  Its source is in the south-western Alps, in Montgenèvre ski resort near Briançon and it flows south-west through the following departments and cities:
  Hautes-Alpes: Briançon, Embrun.
  Alpes-de-Haute-Provence: Sisteron, Manosque.
  Vaucluse: Cavaillon, Avignon.
  Bouches-du-Rhône.
  The Durance's largest tributary is the Verdon. The Durance itself is a tributary of the Rhône and flows into the Rhône near Avignon. The Durance is the second longest of the tributaries of the Rhône and the third largest in terms of its flow.
context_section_description: The middle part of the Durance runs through a landscape that changes as the valley increasingly widens. The river itself becomes steeply banked by terraces, and carves a channel, sometimes a few metres deep, sometimes tens of metres deep. In its middle and lower reaches the Durance is affected by the Mediterranean climate: flooding after autumnal rains, with low water levels in summer. Just before the narrow gap in the mountains at Sisteron, the Durance joins Buëch and the Sasse. Water also flows in from the EDF Canal.
  Beyond Sisteron further rivers and streams join the Durance: Jabron, Vançon,  Bléone near Les Mées and from the Asse (river) a few kilometres to the south of Oraison. The Verdon flows into the Durance near Cadarache. The valley widens still further into an alluvial plain several kilometres wide (5 kilometres (3.1 mi) near Manosque). Here the river was diverted for the development of modern agriculture and the construction of the A51 motorway.
  There are several dams along the middle part of the Durance. In addition to main dam at Serre-Ponçon, there are dams at Espinasses, Sisteron, L'Escale and Cadarache. There are small canals whose primary purpose is to draw water from the river into the EDF Canal which in turn feeds the hydroelectric power stations. Some of the water diverted by the dams is used for irrigation.
caption: Durance Valley at Les Mées, in the northern part of Plateau de Valensole. In the background is the Mourre de Chanier mountain. The EDF Canal is the thin white line in the distance between the tree line and the base of the hills.
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