For people with this last name, see Selz (surname). For a town in Alsace, France, see Seltz. For the French river known in German as Selz, see Seille (Moselle).
It rises near the village of Orbis in the county of Donnersbergkreis, crosses the border from the Palatinate into Rhenish Hesse and after about 8 kilometres (5mi) the town of Alzey in the Alzey-Worms district. There the river passes a pond, and disappears underground, flowing through ditches under the town. On its way it passes through Gau-Odernheim, Nieder-Olm and Ingelheim, before finally discharging into the Rhine in Frei-Weinheim[de; eo], a district of Ingelheim.
The Selz has a catchment area of 375 square kilometres (145sqmi) characterised by a warm, dry climate with an average annual precipitation of around 500 millimetres (20in). Despite its low, and often irregular water flow, the Selz is regarded as the main river in the rather dry rolling countryside of Rhenish Hesse. During periods of low water, its waters consist of a significant amount of clean effluent from sewage farms.
Environmental restoration
For a number of decades of the 20th century there was a lot canalisation of rivers and streams in Germany. As a result of this river straightening process that was carried out between 1958 and 1963, the Selz stream was constricted between embankments and flows in a relatively meandering course through the plain between the famous rolling hills of Rhenish Hesse. In order to prevent river bed degradation and to improve both biodiversity and flood protection, the local nature conservation association (Selztalverband) and the district of Mainz-Bingen managed a revitalization of the Selz over a considerable length between Hahnheim, Undenheim and Sörgenloch.
The loss of the floodplain and shorter sections of river caused higher water levels and risk of flood than in the past. Some floods that nearly caused a disaster were the reason for a restoration concept. The concept includes flood protection, river bed stabilization and renaturization measures. The main objectives are:
Floodplains have been widened to between 50 and 100 metres (160 and 330ft). Nature is allowed to develop undisturbed in biotopes, which protect and promote the biodiversity of the landscape with its meadows, ditches, bank slopes, marsh areas, wetland, Phragmites, willows, hedges and boundary ridges. During the past 25 years, the village of Hahnheim has planted 27,000 trees and hedges along the Selz within its boundaries.
Since the Selz renaturation project covers several miles of the Selz's riverbank, it has increased the overall length of the river.
Nieder-Olm, the reason for the foundation of Nieder-Olm is given by the passage of an old Roman road over the Selz river which led to the Roman camps around Mainz and the city itself.
A signposted cycle track along the Selz, the Selztalradweg, does partially use two old railway tracks of the Amiche[de] and Zuckerlottche[de]. Both trackbeds now have a tarmac surface. Sometimes the cycle path along the river bed may be used in dry weather. Both routes are covered by tall trees, shading the cycleway from the hot sun.
Ingelheim, officially Ingelheim am Rhein, is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in the Rhineland-Palatinate state of Germany. The town sprawls along the Rhine's left bank. It has been Mainz-Bingen's district seat since 1996.
Nierstein-Oppenheim is a former Verbandsgemeinde in the district Mainz-Bingen (Rheinhessen) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the left bank of the Rhine, approx. 15 km south-east of Mainz. On 1 July 2014 it merged into the new Verbandsgemeinde Rhein-Selz.
Rhenish Hesse or Rhine Hesse is a region and a former government district in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is made up of territories west of the Upper Rhine river that were part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and its successor in the Weimar Republic, the People's State of Hesse from 1816 to 1945. The hilly countryside is largely devoted to vineyards, comprising the Rheinhessen wine region.
Mont-Tonnerre was a department of the First French Republic and later the First French Empire in present-day Germany. It was named after the highest point in the Palatinate, the Donnersberg. It was the southernmost of four departments formed in 1797 when the west bank of the Rhine was annexed by France. Prior to the French occupation, its territory was divided between the Archbishopric of Mainz, the Bishopric of Speyer, the Bishopric of Worms, Nassau-Weilburg, Hesse-Darmstadt, the Electorate of the Palatinate and the imperial cities of Worms and Speyer. Its territory is now part of the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. Its capital was Mainz.
Selzen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Nieder-Olm is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Until 5 November 2006 it was an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – but it was raised to town the next day. It is still the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Nieder-Olm, and functions as a middle centre in the region.
Bechtolsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Alzey-Land, whose seat is in Alzey.
Gau-Odernheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Rheinhessen is the largest of 13 German wine regions (Weinanbaugebiete) for quality wines with 26,758 hectares under cultivation in 2018. Named for the traditional region of Rhenish Hesse, it lies on the left bank of the Rhine between Worms and Bingen in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Despite its historic name it is currently no longer part of the federal-state of Hesse, this being the case since the end of World War II. There have been several unsuccessful attempts to legally reunite the former wine growing districts of Mainz on the Hessian side during the post-war area. Rheinhessen produces mostly white wine from a variety of grapes, particularly Riesling, Müller-Thurgau and Silvaner, and is best known as the home of Liebfraumilch, although some previously underrated Rieslings are also made, increasingly in a powerful dry style.
Biebelnheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mauchenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Dorn-Dürkheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Hillesheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mommenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Stadecken-Elsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Undenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Rhein-Selz, whose seat is in Oppenheim.
Sörgenloch is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
The Rhenish-Hessian Hills, also called the "Land of the Thousand Hills", refers to that part of Rhenish Hesse within the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It lies within the counties of Alzey-Worms and Mainz-Bingen, and covers the same area as the natural region known as the Rhenish Hesse Tableland and Hill Country. It covers an area of around 1,400 km2.
The Weidas, also called the Weidasserbach, is a roughly eleven-kilometre-long, orographically right-hand tributary of the Selz in the German region of Rhenish Hesse.
The Wiesbach is a 44.4-kilometre-long (27.6 mi) river of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
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