River
Arc
128 km from source to mouth · France.
FranceFlows into Isère
In numbers
Length
128km
Average flow
49m³/s
Basin
2,000km²
Drop
1,496m
from 1,771 m to 275 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
128 km of river and 14 stops on the way: 9 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmBonneval-sur-Arcat 1,771 m
- 37 kmPont du Diable
- 38 kmcascade Saint-Benoît
- 44 kmModane4,086 people
- 51 kmpipeline bridge over the Arc (Isère) in Saint-André
- 52 kmBissorte Lake1.0 km²
- 62 kmSaint-Michel-de-Maurienne3,174 people
- 73 kmVillargondran1,030 people
- 75 kmSaint-Jean-de-Maurienne9,536 people
- 86 kmLa Chambre1,205 people
- 87 kmSaint-Etienne-de-Cuines1,311 people
- 91 kmPont de Saint-Rémy-de-Maurienne
- 92 kmSaint-Rémy-de-Maurienne1,047 people
- 115 kmAiton1,260 people
- 127 kmCoise1,018 people
- 128 kmIsèreat 275 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in Savoie, France
At the mouth it carries 49 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 51 seconds. It drops from 1,771 m to 275 m, 12 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 2,000 km², about the size of MU. 179,000 people live in it. Highest water: from February to March. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (23% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- Saint-Jean-de-MaurienneLargest city on its banks · 9,536 people
- Chambéry Aix les Bains airport (CMF)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 55 km from the cityCar hire at GNB airport (Grenoble)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water4 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- Kayak and canoe1 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
- From June to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Arc, month by month
Highest water: from February to March
Best months to visit: from June to September.
From about 31 m³/s in the lowest month to 200 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The basin
Arc: the basin in numbers
4,834 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 179,000people live in the basin
- 37/km²people per km²
- 1,844maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,429mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 3.4°Caverage air temperature
- 42%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 3%glaciers
- 5%permafrost
- 0.5km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 65% Forest
- 1% Cropland
- 9% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
- 3% Ice
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Arc: what you find on the way
- 57WeirsAncien barrage de Saint-Julien and 56 more
- 31WaterfallsCascade de Glace, Cascade des Échos, Cascade du Merderel and 28 more
- 1Canoe put-insLanslebourg
- 3Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 1.6 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Arc in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1waterfall on the riverCascadyas
1lake on its wayLakeyas
66mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Waterfalls (1)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- cascade Saint-Benoîtkm 37
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Bissorte Lakekm 501.0km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (66)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Uia di Ciamarella8.6 km away · prominence 664 m3,676m
- Levanna1.5 km away · prominence 541 m3,619m
- Ciarforon11 km away3,642m
- Bessanèse12 km away · prominence 394 m3,592m
- Tsanteleina12 km away · prominence 500 m3,602m
- Albaron8.9 km away3,637m
- Grande Aiguille Rousse4.5 km away · prominence 391 m3,482m
- Tresenta14 km away · prominence 221 m3,609m
58 more on PeakyasOpen Peakyas ↗
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Arc in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
IsèreFrance286 km360 m³/sTributaries (5)
Also: Arvan, Valloirette, Doron de Termignon, Glandon, Bugeon
SwitzerlandNearby
Rivers nearby
ItalyWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q631049) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Cascadyas, Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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