Шығыс Франциядағы Сона өзені

River in Eastern France

The Saône (/s//oʊ//n/ SOHN, son; ; ) is a river in Eastern France. It is a right tributary of the Rhône, rising at Vioménil in the Vosges department and joining the Rhône in Lyon, at the southern end of the Presqu'île. The name Saône derives from that of the Gallic river goddess Souconna, which has also been connected with a local Celtic tribe, the Sequanes. Monastic copyists progressively transformed Souconna to Saoconna, which ultimately gave rise to Saône. The other recorded ancient names for the river were Brigoulus and Arar.

The Saône rises at Vioménil at the foot of the cliff of the Faucilles in the Vosges at an elevation of ; it flows into the Rhône at Lyon at an elevation of
Its length is Its largest tributary is the Doubs; upstream of receiving the Doubs at Verdun sur le Doubs in Saône et Loire, the Saône is called the "Petite Saône" (lesser Saône), which reflects the large contribution of the Doubs to the Saône. In fact the Doubs's mean annual flow rate is slightly stronger than that of the Petite Saône, compared to ; some thus assert that it is in fact the Saône that flows into the Doubs. Nonetheless, the Saône has a substantially larger watershed than the Doubs, at vs.
At the Saône has the largest watershed of any French river that does not flow directly into the sea, covering approximately 1/18 of metropolitan France. In pre Roman times the river's name was "Arar", a doubling of the Indo European root ar (water). According to Julius Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War this doubling reflected the idea that it was difficult to identify the direction of the river due to its slow rate of flow. The Battle of the Arar was the first major battle of the Gallic Wars. Its current name came from a sacred spring, Sauc Onna, located at Chalon, which was used by Roman legionaries to refer to the entire river.

The Saône is navigable from its confluence with the Coney at Corre in the north of the département Haute Saône all the way to its confluence with the Rhône (itself a navigable river) at La Mulatière, in Lyon. The navigable stretch is long, of which has been redeveloped to European high capacity dimensions from Saint Symphorien sur Saône to Lyon. It has 5 locks. The 161 km long part upstream from Saint Symphorien sur Saône to Corre, also named Petite Saône, is navigable for Freycinet gauge ships and has 19 locks. The Saône is linked with the Loire by the Canal du Centre, with the Yonne by the Canal de Bourgogne, with the Marne by the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne (previously the Canal de la Marne à la Saône), with the Meuse by the Canal de l'Est, whose southern branch has been renamed the Canal des Vosges, and with the Rhine by the Canal du Rhône au Rhin. All the canals are Freycinet gauge. Also navigable are the small Canal de Pont de Vaux (3 km), the Seille, navigable in a stretch up to Louhans, as well as the lower part of the Doubs. None of these three connect the Saône to any other waterway.

The lesser Saône has a tendency to flood (sometimes influenced by snow), with a very strong oceanic effect. The soils are not susceptible to much infiltration, so that they saturate quickly which contributes to surface runoff. The flow rate grows very quickly, and after receiving the waters of the Lanterne, the Saône already becomes a powerful river. The mean annual flow rate, or discharge, of the Saône has been measured over 50 years (as of 2013) at the Ray sur Saône hydrological station, situated about after the Lanterne confluence between Port sur Saône and Gray. The figure is for a watershed area of (the upper basin of the lesser Saône), and has an annual maximum of and a minimum of
The river exhibits seasonal variations in flow rate, with winter floods from from December to March inclusive, and summer reductions in July/August/September falling to a monthly average of in August. The runoff curve number in the upper basin of the lesser Saône is annually, cf. for the Lanterne, an elevated figure resulting from the very high rainfall in the Vosgian part of its watershed. The specific flow rate rises to 16.0 litres per second per square kilometre of watershed. The maximum instantaneous recorded flow rate was on December 19, 1982.

The greater Saône is formed by the confluence of the Doubs and the lesser Saône at Verdun sur le Doubs. The Doubs brings a mean annual flow rate of , and the lesser Saône,
The greater Saône has only modest tributaries which have little effect on floods or other hydrological properties. It flows in a vast plain approximately wide as far as Lyon in the basin of the former Bressan lake. The slope is very gradual, and without hydraulic projects up to the north of Chalon aimed at guaranteeing a deep navigation channel, overflows would be more frequent. At the Couzon au Mont d'Or hydrological station, where the river enters the Lyon area, measurements taken between 1969 and 1986 revealed a mean annual flow rate of , with a 100 year flood flow rate of The runoff curve number from the river's entire watershed is , and the specific flow rate rises to 15.8 litres per second per square km of watershed.

Overall, the average flow rate in Lyon is , with a minimum of , in August, and a maximum of , in February.