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Low water at Kaub restricts Rhine barge shipping in summer 2022

Low water at Kaub restricts Rhine barge shipping in summer 2022. The disruption ran from 2022-07-01 (July 2022) to 2022-09-01 (September 2022), affecting Rotterdam. No measured effect is published for this event; the effect section explains why.

World Freight Monitor permanent record. https://worldfreightmonitor.com/events/2022/low-water-rhine-kaub-2022/. Record last updated 2026-10-29.

Key facts

Started
2022-07-01 (July 2022)
Ended
2022-09-01 (September 2022)
Status
ended
Severity
3 Significant
Scope
regional
Chokepoints
None
Lanes
None
Confidence
high: The gauge readings and crest come from the German federal hydrology institute, the dates of the low water from the Rhine protection commission, and the vessel load figure from the European Space Agency. Start and end are month precision because the commission gives only mid-July and mid-September.
First reported
2022-08-17 (17 August 2022)
  • Severity basis: The Kaub gauge fell to 31 cm on 2022-08-15 amid extreme low water on the navigable Rhine from mid-July to mid-September 2022, a restriction on the main inland route that no measured series covers, so this is an editor judgment.

What happened

Low water on the Rhine restricted barge shipping from mid-July to mid-September 2022 (July to September 2022), according to the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine. At Kaub, the Middle Rhine gauge that shipping watches most closely, the German federal hydrology institute (BfG) recorded 31 cm on 2022-08-15 (15 August 2022), just above the record of 25 cm set on 2018-10-22. The European Space Agency reported that freight vessels were sailing at roughly a quarter to a third of capacity. Rain in late August lifted the gauge to a crest of 128 cm on 2022-08-23, but the BfG said the low water situation had not been resolved. The Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine counted 41 days at Kaub below the equivalent water level in 2022.

Measured effect

No measured effect is published for this event. The affected places are not covered by a daily public series we can use.

The disruption is to inland barge traffic on the Rhine, which is not measured by the port call and chokepoint series in our data. Rotterdam sea port calls are not a measure of barge movements.

Timeline

  1. Extremely low water levels set in along the navigable Rhine from mid-July, according to the Rhine protection commission, which had already recorded low flows from March after a dry winter. [s3]
  2. The Kaub gauge reads 31 cm, close to the record low of 25 cm from October 2018. Shipping continues with reduced loads. The European Space Agency reports 32 cm at Kaub that day and vessels at about a quarter to a third of capacity. [s1] [s4]
  3. Rain in Switzerland and the Black Forest lifts Kaub to a crest of 128 cm, barely above the low water range. By 2022-08-25 the level is back to 111 cm and the BfG says the low water situation is not resolved. [s2]
  4. Water levels recover gradually from the second half of August. At least average levels hold from October, and the Rhine commission treats the low water event as over. The navigation commission later counts 41 days at Kaub below the equivalent water level of 78 cm for 2022. [s3] [s5]

Cause

The Rhine protection commission attributes the low water mainly to below-average rain in spring and summer 2022 combined with above-average air temperatures, after a dry and mild winter 2021/2022 in which no large snow reserves formed. Attributed by: International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine. [s3]

Resolution

2022-09-01 (1 September 2022): The Rhine protection commission reports extremely low water on the navigable Rhine until mid-September 2022, a gradual recovery from the second half of August and at least average levels from October, when it considers the event ended. [s3]

Corrections

No corrections to this record as of 2026-10-29 (29 October 2026).

Sources

  1. [s1] Bundesanstalt fuer Gewaesserkunde (BfG), Niedrigwasser-Berichtsperiode 12.-18.08.2022, published 2022-08-18 (18 August 2022), accessed 2026-10-28. Archived copy. (official)
  2. [s2] Bundesanstalt fuer Gewaesserkunde (BfG), Niedrigwasser-Berichtsperiode 19.-25.08.2022, published 2022-08-25 (25 August 2022), accessed 2026-10-28. Archived copy. (official)
  3. [s3] International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine (ICPR), Bericht zum Niedrigwasser- und Duerreereignis des Jahres 2022 (Fachbericht Nr. 299), published 2024-12-18 (18 December 2024), accessed 2026-10-28. Archived copy. (official)
  4. [s4] European Space Agency, Rhine river runs dry, published 2022-08-17 (17 August 2022), accessed 2026-10-28. Archived copy. (official)
  5. [s5] Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine (CCNR), European Inland Navigation Market Observation, annual report 2023, part II, published 2023-09-01 (1 September 2023), accessed 2026-10-28. Archived copy. (official)

Cite this record

The address of this record is permanent and a correction is always logged on this page, so a citation names the version you read. Add the date you accessed it.

Plain text

World Freight Monitor. "Low water at Kaub restricts Rhine barge shipping in summer 2022." Last updated 2026-10-29 (29 October 2026). https://worldfreightmonitor.com/events/2022/low-water-rhine-kaub-2022/

APA

World Freight Monitor. (2026). Low water at Kaub restricts Rhine barge shipping in summer 2022. World Freight Monitor. https://worldfreightmonitor.com/events/2022/low-water-rhine-kaub-2022/

BibTeX

@misc{wfm_low_water_rhine_kaub_2022,
  author = {{World Freight Monitor}},
  title = {Low water at Kaub restricts Rhine barge shipping in summer 2022},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Last updated 2026-10-29},
  url = {https://worldfreightmonitor.com/events/2022/low-water-rhine-kaub-2022/}
}