Stream
Lufira River
500 km from source to mouth · DR Congo.
DR CongoFlows into Lualaba River10th longest in DR Congo
In numbers
Length
500km
Average flow
300m³/s
Basin
50,000km²
Drop
577m
from 1,139 m to 562 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
500 km of river and 10 stops on the way: 0 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 1,139 m
- 84 kmLake Tshangalele180 km²
- 84 kmChutes Cornet
- 89 kmChute de Koni
- 284 kmChute Kiubo
- 450 kmLac Kapande0.4 km²
- 455 kmLac Kibombo0.3 km²
- 474 kmLac Lunda41 km²
- 478 kmLac Kampandwa2.9 km²
- 479 kmLac Kisanga-Lumbwa1.3 km²
- 486 kmLake Kisale298 km²
- 500 kmLualaba Riverat 562 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in DR Congo
At the mouth it carries 305 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 8.2 seconds. It drops from 1,139 m to 562 m, 1.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 50,000 km², about the size of CR. 1.3 million people live in it. Highest water: from January to March; lowest: from June to September. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (14% of a year's flow).
Where to start
- KipambaLargest city on its banks · 46,430 people
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Lufira River, month by month
Highest water: from January to March
Lowest water: from June to September. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 110 m³/s in the lowest month to 750 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
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The basin
Lufira River: the basin in numbers
52,950 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 1.3millionpeople live in the basin
- 25/km²people per km²
- 1,200maverage altitude of the basin
- 1,077mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 21.1°Caverage air temperature
- 35%protected areas
- 0.7%covered by lakes
- 1.3km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 62% Forest
- 9% Cropland
- 22% Pasture
- 1% Towns and cities
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
Lufira River: what you find on the way
- 1Weirs
- 10Waterfalls
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Lufira River 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.
3waterfalls on the riverCascadyas
7lakes on its wayLakeyas
Waterfalls (3)
On the river, by Cascadyas
- Chutes Cornetkm 87
- Chute de Konikm 93
- Chute Kiubokm 295
Cascadyas is coming soonOpen Cascadyas ↗
Lakes and reservoirs (7)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Lake Tshangalelekm 87 · 3 m deep180km²
- Lac Kapandekm 4680.4km²
- Lac Kibombokm 4740.3km²
- Lac Lundakm 49341km²
- Lac Kampandwakm 4982.9km²
- Lac Kisanga-Lumbwakm 4991.3km²
- Lake Kisalekm 506298km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
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.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
It flows into
Lualaba RiverDR Congo1,800 km12,400 m³/sIn the same basin
Angola4,700 km41,800 m³/sKasai River
Republic of the Congo2,272 km12,000 m³/sUbangi River
Central African Republic1,060 km5,900 m³/sKwango RiverDR Congo1,770 km2,700 m³/sUeleDR Congo1,210 km1,500 m³/sLomami RiverDR Congo1,280 km3,000 m³/sSanghaRepublic of the Congo785 km2,500 m³/sEbola RiverDR Congo250 km320 m³/sMbomou RiverCentral African Republic800 km1,300 m³/sLuvua RiverDR Congo350 km600 m³/s
Zambia
TanzaniaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q624223) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed along the river network from the point 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 — 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
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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Every island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit 
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Every river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
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