The water transfer in Hamm is a hydraulic engineering system at the Hamm lock of the Datteln-Hamm canal. It is used to regulate the water in the West German canal network and the Lippe.
In Hamm, the Lippe and canal run parallel to each other, separated by a canal side dam, which is also a flood dike.
The water transfer there consists of the following structures:
A roller weir near the Hamm lock dams the Lippe to an average of 58.15 meters above sea level. It is therefore a few centimeters higher than the parallel canal section up to the Werries lock (NN+57.95 metres).
Directly at the Hamm lock, the historic building of the water distribution system rises partly over the Lippe and partly over the free flow of the canal (see first aerial photo). Here the flap weirs are housed in the Lippe, with which the amount of water to be fed into the canal is controlled. There is also a turbine system[1] for power generation (475 kilowatts), which uses the mean head of the canal of 1.45 meters and the lip of 3.88 meters.
The pumping station is located below the building between the free flood and the lock.
In the headwater of the lock, about 1 km away at the Fährstraße bridge, is the feed structure (see second aerial photo), with which the Lippe water flows into the canal via a natural gradient (20 cm/m).
Below the lock is the transition structure, which feeds canal water into the Lippe when required. Since the Lippe has a greater drop than the canal lock, it is below the level of the canal here, so that canal water can be diverted using the natural gradient.