Topolnitsa Reservoir (Bulgarian:Тополница) is a dam and reservoir in the Sredna Gora mountain range of western Bulgaria. Administratively, it is located in Panagyurishte Municipality of Pazardzhik Province and Ihtiman Municipality of Sofia Province.

Geography

The reservoir is situated along the upper middle course of the river Topolnitsa its section, where it forms the divide between Ihtimanska Sredna Gora to the west and Sashtinska Sredna Gora to the east. The right tributary of the Topolnitsa, the Mativir, flows from the west into the middle section of the reservoir. There are two settlements along its shores, the villages of Muhovo at the dam wall to the south, and Poibrene at its tail to the north. Topolnitsa Reservoir is accessible via the third class III-801 road at Muhovo and the third class III-801 road at Poibrene, which leads to the town of Panagyurishte further east. There are many villas and bungalows around the shores of the dam. It is an attractive destination for fishing and outdoors activities.

Dam

The first hydrological studies for the construction of the dam were conducted in 1936. Construction began in 1948 and finished in 1963. The dam is built of concrete and reaches a height of 78m and a length of 336m. The dam spillway has a capacity of 1,500m3/s and is equipped with 4 valves. Topolnitsa Reservoir spans a territory of 4.1km2; the catchment area is 1,381km2 with an annual precipitation of 603mm. The projected volume is 137millionm3.

It is the largest and lowermost of a cascade of three reservoirs constructed along the Topolnitsa, the other being Zhekov Vir and Dushantsi. The main purpose of the reservoir is to irrigate agricultural lands in the Upper Thracian Plain, spanning a territory of 694km2 between Pazardzhik and Plovdiv, including 100km2 rice paddy fields. There is a small hydro power plant built in its dam wall with a capacity of 9MW.

Citations

  • Мичев (Michev), Николай (Nikolay); Михайлов (Mihaylov), Цветко (Tsvetko); Вапцаров (Vaptsarov), Иван (Ivan); Кираджиев (Kiradzhiev), Светлин (Svetlin) (1980). Географски речник на България [Geographic Dictionary of Bulgaria] (in Bulgarian). София (Sofia): Наука и култура (Nauka i kultura).