river

1. (Abbr. R.) A large natural stream of water emptying into an ocean, lake, or other body of water and usually fed along its course by converging tributaries.
2. A stream or abundant flow: a river of tears.

up the river Slang.

1. In or into prison.

[Middle English rivere, from Anglo-Norman, from Vulgar Latin *rīpāria, from Latin, feminine of rīpārius, of a bank, from rīpa, bank.]

A natural, fresh-water surface stream that has considerable volume compared with its smaller tributaries. The tributaries are known as brooks, creeks, branches, or forks. Rivers are usually the main stems and larger tributaries of the drainage systems that convey surface runoff from the land. Rivers flow from headwater areas of small tributaries to their mouths, where they may discharge into the ocean, a major lake, or a desert basin.

Rivers flowing to the ocean drain about 68% of the Earth's land surface. Regions draining to the sea are termed exoreic, while those draining to interior closed basins are endoreic. Areic regions are those which lack surface streams because of low rainfall or lithoogic conditions.

Sixteen of the largest rivers account for nearly half of the total world river flow of water. The Amazon River alone carries nearly 20% of all the water annually discharged by the world's rivers. Rivers also carry large loads of sediment. The total sediment load for all the world's rivers averages about 22 × 10⁹ tons (20 × 10⁹ metric tons) brought to the sea each year. Sediment loads for individual rivers vary considerably. The Yellow River of northern China is the most prolific transporter of sediment. Draining an agricultural region of easily eroded loess, this river averages about 2 × 10⁹ tons (1.8 × 10⁹ metric tons) of sediment per year, one-tenth of the world average. See also Depositional systems and environments; Loess.

River discharge varies over a broad range, depending on many climatic and geologic factors. The low flows of the river influence water supply and navigation. The high flows are a concern as threats to life and property. However, floods are also beneficial. The ancient Egyptian civilization was dependent upon the Nile River floods to provide new soil and moisture for crops. Floods are but one attribute of rivers that affect human society. Means of counteracting the vagaries of river flow have concerned engineers for centuries. In modern times many of the world's rivers are managed to conserve the natural flow for release at times required by human activity, to confine flood flows to the channel and to planned areas of floodwater storage, and to maintain water quality at optimum levels. See also Floodplain; River engineering.

For more information on river, visit Britannica.com.

There are a few traces in 19th-century local traditions of a belief that certain rivers are malevolent, and will periodically take a human life. The best known is the Dart (Devon), about which there is a rhyme:

River of Dart, River of Dart,
Every year thou claimest a heart.

‘He didna know Darrant, he said it were nought but a brook. But Darrant got'im. They never saw his head, he threw his arms up, but Darrant wouldna let him go. Aye, it's a sad pity, seven children! But he shouldna ha' made so light o' Darrant. He knows now! Naught but a brook! He knows now!’ (Folk-Lore 15 (1904), 99)

America's rivers played a vital role in the early exploration, settlement, and development of the country. Long before white settlers arrived on American shores and began following river channels into the country's interior, Native peoples had been canoeing the waterways of the continent. Some of the detailed maps the indigenous cartographers created still exist today.

River Pathways to Exploration

The exploration of America via river travel boasts a history that includes nearly every major waterway. Among the first European explorers was Captain John Smith, who in 1608 traveled the Potomac River, a body of water that traverses nearly 400 miles to form the fourth-largest watershed on the East Coast. Settlers established the colony of Maryland on the lower Potomac less than twenty-five years later, and colonization of the northern Virginia shore followed within a decade.

Commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, Captain Henry Hudson began his exploration of America's northeastern coast in 1609, eventually sailing into the mouth of a river near today's New York City. He hoped the river, now named the Hudson River, would offer a passage west to the Pacific. However, near the location of present-day Albany he found the river too shallow to continue and was forced to turn back.

The early seventeenth century also marked the first time the 1,200-mile-long Columbia River appeared on European maps—after Spanish maritime explorer Martin de Auguilar located it in the Pacific Northwest. That river would eventually become one of the many water highways used by the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 to 1806. During that same expedition, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark depended heavily on the Missouri River, using it and its tributaries to transport them from St. Louis to the northern plains and on to Montana.

Without question, the Mississippi River has also played an important role in the European exploration of America. In 1673, Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet traveled the Upper Mississippi River, descending the Wisconsin River and returning to Lake Michigan via present-day Illinois. Others soon followed, and the Mississippi quickly became a major artery of traffic.

Rivers As Sources for Early Industrial Transport and Power

The mid-1600s began to see rivers as major thoroughfares of transportation for moving both people and products, and there was scarcely a hamlet or a trading post that did not have water connection with the coast. Through the better part of three centuries, such rivers as the Saint Croix, Penobscot, Kennebec, Androscoggin, Saco, and Piscataqua bore millions of logs downstream from the vast forests of Maine until timber resources diminished.

The Merrimack River, until the coming of the railroads, carried a significant portion of New Hampshire's goods, principally timber and granite, to towns below, and especially to its nearest large market, Boston. Parts of New Hampshire and Vermont depended upon the Connecticut River. Northwestern Vermont and northern New York traded with Quebec and Montreal via the Richelieu and Saint Lawrence Rivers.

Rivers also became significant sources of power for sawmills and gristmills. Along the Piscataqua, which stretched from Maine to New Hampshire, a sawmill sprang up as early as 1631 that produced lumber, shingles, and barrel staves. A multitude of other sawmills that depended on river power followed.

Gristmills, or operations for grinding grain, also utilized rivers for generating power, as did rice and textile mills. In the early nineteenth century, the fast-running Willimantic River attracted many cotton manufacturers from Rhode Island and Massachusetts. They situated their water-powered cotton mills in Willimantic, Connecticut, and along the length of the Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers. The city of Willimantic eventually became a major American center for silk thread and cloth production between the end of the Civil War and the outbreak of World War II.

Rivers As Sources of Transportation

During the eighteenth century, thousands of newcomers traveled up the western tributaries of the Susquehanna and Potomac Rivers, crossed the watershed, and followed the Youghiogheny, Monongahela, Conemaugh, and Allegheny Rivers downward to populate the Ohio Valley. The great Mississippi River system then became the settlers' highway, and their natural markets included the French communities of Saint Louis and New Orleans. Most were in favor of the War of 1812 because a conquest of Canada would add a new commercial outlet to the east through control of the Saint Lawrence River. George Washington and others warned that if better connections were not established with the Ohio Valley residents, their allegiance might follow their trade down the Mississippi to the Spaniards. The Mississippi River system played a significant role until the railroads began cutting across the natural trade routes.

Farther south, emigrants from Virginia and the Carolinas pushed up the James, Dan, Yadkin, and Catawba Rivers, through the mountains, to populate southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee. The men of that region, in signifying their allegiance to the Revolution, spoke of themselves as "Men of the settlements beyond the Alleghenies, where the Watauga and the Holston flow to the Tennessee." Some of the earliest settlers of Nashville left a fort on the Holston River on 22 December 1779 and journeyed down the Holston and the Tennessee in flatboats. They worked up to the mouth of the Cumberland River, and traveled up the Cumberland to the site of Nashville, which they reached on 24 April 1780 after a journey of some 1,300 miles.

Down the lower Atlantic coast were many broad rivers, really estuaries, having tidewater far upstream from their mouths (Patuxent, Chester, Choptank, Nanticoke, Potomac, Rappahannock, York, James, Chowan, Roanoke, Pamlico, Cape Fear, Pee Dee, Santee, Cooper, Saint Johns, and others). These rivers were the chief highways for regular travel as well as for freight transport and saw much traffic in the early days. Great plantations clustered along them, with the mansions fronting the water.

Commercial River Transportation

With the coming of steam technology and before railroads replaced river transport, steamboats began to populate the rivers, particularly in the Midwest and South. Some steamboats traveled where channels were so narrow that they could not turn around except by backing into the mouth of a tributary stream; most could operate only in parts of the winter and spring, when the water was high. Rivers such as the Cumberland, where boats once ran 150 miles or more above Nashville, could pose difficulties for their navigators, and it was said that a town might hear a boat whistle across a bend in the early morning and not see the craft until late afternoon. Mark Twain, enamored with river travel and steamboats, once said a river is a "wonderful book [with] a new story to tell everyday."

In California, when the gold rush began in 1849, the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers were almost the only feasible way to travel from San Francisco to the mining regions. There were no steamboats, and many gold-seekers paid high fees for passage upstream in a skiff or yawl, with the understanding that they were to help with the rowing. Others traveled in slow-moving sailing vessels. A steamer built in New York for the Atlantic coast trade went safely around Cape Horn and began operating on the Sacramento River; and until another one followed it four months later, its rates were so high that it earned $20,000 or more on a round trip. After 1855, the Columbia River likewise became the main route to and from the Pacific coast from the mining regions of Idaho and northeastern Washington.

Rivers' Role in Warfare

Rivers have played an important part in the nation's warfare. The French and Indian War took place almost entirely along rivers or intervening lakes. The French came down the Allegheny to seize the forks of the Ohio and build Fort Duquesne. Washington marched by the Potomac, Wills Creek, and the Youghiogheny on his illfated expedition of 1754.

The Ohio River was perhaps the most noted pathway of Indian warfare in American history. For decades, the upper Missouri River saw frequent Indian attacks upon white trappers, traders, and settlers. Much of the fighting of the Revolutionary War in New York State was done on, or immediately near, the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers.

In the Civil War the Potomac, the Rapidan, Rappahannock, North Anna, Chickahominy, and James Rivers served as important strategic barriers in the East, along which armies aligned themselves or fought. The division of Union Gen. George B. McClellan's army by the Chickahominy in the Seven Days' Battles came near being its ruin. The Potomac below Washington, D.C., provided a waterway by which the North could move armies quickly to block the mouth of the James. In the Midwest and South the Mississippi and its tributaries were among the chief objects of strategy. The seizure of the Mississippi in 1863 split the Confederacy in two and presaged its downfall. The Tennessee River furnished the route used by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's army to reach Chattanooga in the autumn of 1863, and the Battle of Wauhatchie was fought to keep it open. The Red River (southern) witnessed an important but unsuccessful Union expedition in 1864 aimed at Texas.

Decline of River Transportation

In 1862, Congress passed the first of several railroad acts that would eventually connect the continent, lessening the need for rivers as a major mode of transportation within the commercial, public, and military sectors. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Navigation Data Center reported declining commercial traffic on many of the nation's waterways.

Bibliography

Adams, Arthur G. The Hudson through the Years. Bronx, N.Y.: Fordham University Press, 1996.

Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.

Dietrich, William. Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996.

Hahn, Thomas F. Cement Mills along the Potomac River. Morgan-town: West Virginia University Press, 1994.

Merrick, George By Ron. Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.

Powell, John Wesley, and Anthony Brandt. The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2002.

Reps, John W. Saint Louis Illustrated: Nineteenth-Century Engravings and Lithographs of a Mississippi River Metropolis. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1989.

Worster, Donald. A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

For other uses, see River (disambiguation).

"Riverine" redirects here. For a navigable river of interest to maritime geographers, see maritime geography. For a member of the Mobile Riverine Force, see Riverines.

Melting Toe of Athabasca Glacier, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada.

The beginning of a mountain river in the Swiss Alps, Switzerland. (Reichenbach in Grosse Scheidegg)

This bridge across the Danube River links Hungary with Slovakia.

A view across the Brahmaputra from near Sukleswar ghat in Guwahati, India.

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill; there is no general rule that defines what can be called a river. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; one example is Burn in Scotland and North-east England. Sometimes a river is said to be larger than a creek,^[1] but this is not always the case, because of vagueness in the language.^[2]

A river is part of the hydrological cycle. Water within a river is generally collected from precipitation through surface runoff, groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snowpacks (i.e., from glaciers).

Contents 1 Topography 2 Classification 3 Uses 4 Ecosystem 5 Chemistry 6 Brakish water 7 Flooding 8 Flow 8.1 Direction 8.2 Rate 9 Management 10 Rating systems 10.1 Gallery 11 See also 11.1 Crossings 11.2 Transport 12 References 13 Further reading

Topography

Amazon River in Brazil.

The water in a river is usually confined to a channel, made up of a stream bed between banks. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by flood-waters over-topping the channel. Flood plains may be very wide in relation to the size of the river channel. This distinction between river channel and floodplain can be blurred especially in urban areas where the floodplain of a river channel can become greatly developed by housing and industry.

The term upriver is referred to the direction leading to the source of the river, which is against the direction of flow. Likewise, the term downriver describes the direction towards the mouth of the river, in which the current flows.

The river channel typically contains a single stream of water, but some rivers flow as several interconnecting streams of water, producing a braided river. Extensive braided rivers are now found in only a few regions worldwide, such as in southmost Alabama and the South Island of New Zealand. They also occur on peneplains and some of the larger river deltas. Anastamosing rivers are similar to braided rivers and are also quite rare. They have multiple sinuous channels carrying large volumes of sediment.

A river flowing in its channel is a source of energy which acts on the river channel to change its shape and form. According to Brahm's law (sometimes called Airy's law), the mass of objects that may be flown away by a river is proportional to the sixth power of the river flow speed. Thus, when the speed of flow increases two times, it can transport 64 times larger (i.e. more massive) objects.^[3] In mountainous torrential zones this can be seen as erosion channels through hard rocks and the creation of sands and gravels from the destruction of larger rocks. In U shaped glaciated valleys, the subsequent river valley can often easily be identified by the V shaped channel that it has carved. In the middle reaches where the river may flow over flatter land, meanders may form through erosion of the river banks and deposition on the inside of bends. Sometimes the river will cut off a loop, shortening the channel and forming an oxbow lake or billabong. Rivers that carry large amounts of sediment may develop conspicuous deltas at their mouths, if conditions permit. Rivers whose mouths are in saline tidal waters may form estuaries.

Throughout the course of the river, the total volume of water transported downstream will often be a combination of the free water flow together with a substantial contribution flowing through sub-surface rocks and gravels that underlie the river and its floodplain (called the hyporheic zone). For many rivers in large valleys, this unseen component of flow may greatly exceed the visible flow.

Classification

Although the following classes are a useful way to visualize rivers, there are many other factors at work. Gradient is controlled largely by tectonics, but discharge is controlled largely by climate, and sediment load is controlled by various factors including climate, geology in the headwaters, and the stream gradient.

Youthful river

a river with a steep gradient that has very few tributaries and flows quickly. Its channels erode deeper rather than wider. (Examples: Brazos River, Trinity River, Ebro River)

Mature river

a river with a gradient that is less steep than those of youthful rivers and flows more slowly. A mature river is fed by many tributaries and has more discharge than a youthful river. Its channels erode wider rather than deeper. (Examples: Mississippi River, St. Lawrence River, Danube River, Ohio River, River Thames)

Old river

a river with a low gradient and low erosive energy. Old rivers are characterized by flood plains. (Examples: Huang He River, Ganges River, Tigris, Euphrates River, Indus River, Nile River)

Rejuvenated river

a river with a gradient that is raised by tectonic uplift.

The straight-line distance from the beginning to the end of most rivers is about one third their actual length.^[4][5]

The way in which a river's characteristics vary between the upper course and lower course of a river is summarized by the Bradshaw model.

Most rivers flow on the surface; however subterranean rivers flow underground in caves or caverns. Such rivers are frequently found in regions with limestone geologic formations.

An intermittent river (or ephemeral river) only flows occasionally and can be dry for several years at a time. These rivers are found in regions with limited or highly variable rainfall, or can occur because of geologic conditions such as having a highly permeable river bed. Some ephemeral rivers flow during the summer months but not in the winter. Such rivers are typically fed from chalk aquifers which recharge from winter rainfall. In the UK these rivers are called Bournes and give their name to place such as Bournemouth and Eastbourne

Uses

Leisure activities on the River Avon at Avon Valley Country Park, Keynsham, United Kingdom. A boat giving trips to the public passes a moored private boat.

Many riverbanks in Japan are used as places for playing, recreation and parties

Rivers have been used as a source of water, for obtaining food, for transport, as a defensive measure, as a source of hydropower to drive machinery, for bathing, and as a means of disposing of waste.

Rivers have been used for navigation for thousands of years. The earliest evidence of navigation is found in the Indus Valley Civilization, which existed in northwestern Pakistan around 3300 BC.^[6] Riverine navigation provides a cheap means of transport, and is still used extensively on most major rivers of the world like the Amazon, the Ganges, the Nile, the Mississippi, and the Indus. Since river boats are often not regulated, they contribute a large amount to global greenhouse_gas emissions, and to local cancer due to inhaling of particulates emitted by the transports.^[7],^[8]

In some heavily-forested regions such as Scandinavia and Canada, lumberjacks use the river to float felled trees downstream to lumber camps for further processing, saving much effort and cost by transporting the huge heavy logs by natural means.

Rivers have been a source of food since pre-history.^[9] They can provide a rich source of fish and other edible aquatic life, and are a major source of fresh water, which can be used for drinking and irrigation. It is therefore no surprise to find most of the major cities of the world situated on the banks of rivers. Rivers help to determine the urban form of cities and neighbourhoods and their corridors often present opportunities for urban renewal through the development of foreshoreways such as Riverwalks. Rivers also provide an easy means of disposing of waste-water and, in much of the less developed world, other wastes.

Fast flowing rivers and waterfalls are widely used as sources of energy, via watermills and hydroelectric plants. Evidence of watermills shows them in use for many hundreds of years such as in the Orkneys at Dounby click mill. Prior to the invention of steam power, water-mills for grinding cereals and for processing wool and other textiles were common across Europe. In the 1890s the first machines to generate power from river water were established at places such as Cragside in Northumberland and in recent decades there has been a significant increase in the development of large scale power generation from water, especially in wet mountainous regions such as Norway

The coarse sediments, gravel and sand, generated and moved by rivers are extensively used in construction. In parts of the world this can generate extensive new lake habitats as gravel pits re-fill with water. In other circumstances it can destabilise the river bed and the course of the river and cause severe damage to spawning fish populations which rely on stable gravel formations for egg laying.

The beauty of rivers and their surroundings contributes to tourist income in many parts of the world from Shakespeare's Avon to the wilds of Alaska's glacier streams.

In upland rivers, rapids with whitewater or even waterfalls occur. Rapids are often used for recreation, such as whitewater kayaking.

Rivers have been important in determining political boundaries and defending countries. For example, the Danube was a long-standing border of the Roman Empire, and today it forms most of the border between Bulgaria and Romania. The Mississippi in North America and the Rhine in Europe are major east-west boundaries in those continents. The Orange and Limpopo Rivers in southern Africa form the boundaries between provinces and countries along their routes.

Ecosystem

Main article: Lotic ecosystems

The flora and fauna of rivers use the aquatic habitats available, from torrential waterfalls through to lowland mires. Although many organisms are restricted to the fresh water in rivers, some, such as salmon and hilsa, have adapted to be able to survive both in rivers and in the sea. The organisms in the riparian zone respond to changes in river channel location and patterns of flow. For example, in rapidly migrating streams, ecological successions develop in accordance with the prevailing patterns of erosion and deposition.

Chemistry

Main article: River chemistry

The chemistry of rivers is complex and depends on inputs from the atmosphere, the geology through which it travels and the inputs from man's activities. The chemistry of the water has a large impact on the ecology of that water for both plants and animals and it also affects the uses that may be made of the river water. Understanding and characterising river water chemistry requires a well designed and managed programme of sampling and analysis

Like many other aquatic ecosystems, rivers to are under increasing threat of pollution. According to a study of the WWF's Global Freshwater Programme, the 10 most polluted rivers are: Ganges, Indus, Yangtze, Salween-Nu, Mekong-Lancang, Rio Grande/Rio Bravo, La Plata, Danube, Nile-Lake Victoria, an the Murray-Darling. ^[10]

Brakish water

Further information: Brackish water

Nile River delta, as seen from Earth orbit. The Nile is an example of a wave-dominated delta that has the classic Greek delta (Δ) shape after which River deltas were named. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Some rivers generate brakish water by having their river mouth in the ocean. This, in effect creates a unique environment in which certain species are found.

Flooding

Flooding is a natural part of a river's cycle. The majority of the erosion of river channels and the erosion and deposition on the associated floodplains occur during flood stage. In many developed areas, human activity has changed river channel form, altering different magnitudes and frequencies of flooding. Some examples of this are the building of levees, the straightening channels, and the draining of natural wetlands. In many cases human activities in rivers and floodplains have dramatically increased the risk of flooding. Straightening rivers allows water to flow more rapidly downstream increasing the risk of flooding places further downstream. Building on flood plains removes flood storage which again exacerbates downstream flooding. The building levees may only protect the area behind the levees and not those further downstream. Levees and flood-banks can also increase flooding upstream because of back-water pressure as the upstream water has to squeeze between the levees.

Flow

Direction

On a large scale, rivers always flow down hill from river source to river mouth. On small scales, rivers almost always flow downhill, with a few exceptions being small-scale flow over obstacles during floods where the pressure of the water overcomes the force of gravity. Not all rivers move in the shortest path down hill, however. For alluvial streams, straight and braided rivers have very low sinuosity and flow directly down hill, while meandering rivers flow from side to side across a valley. Bedrock rivers typically flow in either a fractal pattern, or a pattern that is determined by weaknesses in the bedrock, such as faults, fractures, or more erodible layers.

Rate

Volumetric flow rate, also called discharge, volume flow rate, and rate of water flow, is the volume of water which passes through a given cross-section of the river channel per unit time. It is typically measured in cubic meters per second (cumec) or cubic feet per second (cfs), where 1 m³/s = 35.51 ft³/s; it is sometimes also measured in litres or gallons per second.

Volumetric flow rate can be thought of as the mean velocity of the flow through a given cross-section, times that cross-sectional area. Mean velocity can be approximated through the use of the Law of the Wall. In general, velocity increases with the depth (or hydraulic radius) and slope of the river channel, while the cross-sectional area scales with the depth and the width: the double-counting of depth shows the importance of this variable in determining the discharge through the channel.

Management

Main article: River engineering

Rivers are often managed or controlled to make them more useful, or less disruptive, to human activity.

• Dams or weirs may be built to control the flow, store water, or extract energy.
• Levees, known as dikes in Europe, may be built to prevent river water from flowing on floodplains or floodways.
• Canals connect rivers to one another for water transfer or navigation.
• River courses may be modified to improve navigation, or straightened to increase the flow rate.

River management is a continuous activity as rivers tend to 'undo' the modifications made by people. Dredged channels silt up, sluice mechanisms deteriorate with age, levees and dams may suffer seepage or catastrophic failure. The benefits sought through managing rivers may often be offset by the social and economic costs of mitigating the bad effects of such management. As an example, in parts of the developed world, rivers have been confined within channels to free up flat flood-plain land for development. Floods can inundate such development at high financial cost and often with loss of life.

Rivers are increasingly managed for habitat conservation, as they are critical for many aquatic and riparian plants, resident and migratory fishes, waterfowl, birds of prey, migrating birds, and many mammals.

Rating systems

• International Scale of River Difficulty – The scale is used to rate the challenges of navigation—particularly those with rapids. Class I is the easiest and Class VI is the hardest.
• Strahler Stream Order – The Strahler Stream Order ranks rivers based on the connectivity and hierarchy of contributing tributaries. Headwaters are first order while the Amazon River is twelfth order. Approximately 80% of the rivers and streams in the world are of the first and second order.

Gallery

Río Peralonso - El Zulia (Norte de Santander), Colombia.	River Gambia flowing through Niokolo-Koba National Park, Senegal.	Bridges are a common way of crossing rivers. (Hooghly River, Kolkata, India)	Zambezi and Victoria Falls in Zambia and Zimbabwe
Hooghly River, Kolkata, India.	Heathcote National Park, Australia.	This river flows from Woronora Dam, Sydney, Australia.	Oder River in Szczecin, Poland.
A schematic showing how a freshwater river can be disconnected from a seawater mouth

See also

See also: geography, water cycle, and drainage basin

Look up river in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: River

• Aqueduct
• Baer's law
• Blackwater river
• Canal
• Drought
• Hack's law
• Hydrology
• List of international border rivers
• List of river name etymologies
• List of rivers by average discharge
• List of rivers by length
• List of rivers of Africa
• List of rivers of Asia
• List of rivers of Europe
• List of rivers of Oceania
• List of rivers of the Americas
• List of waterways
• Mainstem (hydrology)
• Playfair's Law
• River civilization
• River continuum concept
• River cruise
• The Riverkeepers (book)
• Rock-cut basin
• Salt tide
• Sediment transport
• Water dispute

Crossings

• Bridges
• Ferries
• Fords
• Tunnels

Transport

• Barge
• Riverboat
• Sailing
• Towpath

References

1. ^ "WordNet Search: River". The Trustees of Princeton University. http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=river&sub=Search+WordNet&o2=&o0=1&o7=&o5=&o1=1&o6=&o4=&o3=&h=. Retrieved 2009-10-02. 
2. ^ "Domestic Names: Frequently Asked Question (FAQs), #17". United States Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/domestic/faqs.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-02. 
3. ^ Garde, R. J. (1995). History of fluvial hydraulics. New Age Publishers. pp. p. 19. ISBN 812240815X. OCLC 34628134. http://books.google.com/books?lr=&hl=en&q=%22It+may+also+be+mentioned+that+criterion+for+the+beginning%22. 
4. ^ Hans-Henrik Stølum: "River Meandering as a Self-Organization Process", Science 271 (5256), 1710
5. ^ Fermat's last theorem, Simon Singh, 1997
6. ^ http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_freshwater/rivers/
7. ^ http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01105015
8. ^ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0265-931X(02)00133-9
9. ^ http://en.nmp.gov.tw/park01-2.html
10. ^ Top 10 most polluted rivers

Further reading

• Beyond the Bridges Life on American Rivers told by Riverlorian, Jerry Hay. [1]for more information
• Jeffrey W. Jacobs. "Rivers, Major World". Water Encyclopaedia. http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Re-St/Rivers-Major-World.html. 
• Luna B. Leopold (1994). A View of the River. Harvard University Press. ISBN. ISBN 0674937325. OCLC 28889034.  — a non-technical primer on the geomorphology and hydraulics of water.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - flod, strøm

idioms:

• river bank    flodbred
• river basin    flodbækken
• river bed    flodseng

Nederlands (Dutch)
rivier

Français (French)
n. - fleuve, rivière, (fig) fleuve

idioms:

• river bank    berge
• river basin    bassin fluvial
• river bed    lit de rivière, lit de fleuve

Deutsch (German)
n. - Fluß, Strom

idioms:

• river bank    Flußufer
• river basin    Stromgebiet, Einzugsgebiet
• river bed    Flußbett

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ποταμός, ποτάμι

idioms:

• river bank    όχθη (ποταμού)
• river basin    (γεωλ.) λεκάνη απορροής ποταμού
• river bed    κοίτη ποταμού

Italiano (Italian)
fiume

idioms:

• river bank    riva di un fiume
• river basin    bacino fluviale
• river bed    letto di un fiume

Português (Portuguese)
n. - rio (m)

idioms:

• river bank    margem do rio
• river basin    bacia fluvial
• river bed    leito do rio

Русский (Russian)
река

idioms:

• river bank    берег реки
• river basin    бассейн реки
• river bed    русло реки

Español (Spanish)
n. - río

idioms:

• river bank    ribera, orilla
• river basin    cuenca de río
• river bed    lecho del río, cauce del río

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - flod

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
河, 江

idioms:

• river bank    河岸
• river basin    江河流域
• river bed    河床

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 河, 江

idioms:

• river bank    河岸
• river basin    江河流域
• river bed    河床

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 강, 다량의 흐름, 생사의 갈림길

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 川, 流れ, エリダヌス座, 裂く人

idioms:

• river bank    河岸
• river basin    流域
• river bed    川床

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) نهر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮נהר‬

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