A Report on the River Rhine
Introduction
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The River Rhine stands to be the 3rd largest river in the whole of
Europe, yet is one of the most influential rivers in the world; some
even call it Europe’s main artery. The Rhine is responsible for 10% of
the world’s chemical production, as well as huge amounts of production
of refineries, textiles manufactures, metal works and plastics. On
average around 250 million tones of cargo are transported along the
river Rhine to the necessary factories a year. Despite all the
pollution and other issues it has faced, the condition of the Rhine is
improving dramatically, and still is regarded as the most important
river in Europe.
The Rhine starts off high up in the Swiss Alps and then flows in a
northerly direction, during its journey it flows through some of the
main countries of Europe; Germany, France, The Netherlands, Luxembourg
and many others. It is 1320m long and this makes it the largest river
in the whole of Europe. To be precise it flows from the Alps in
Switzerland through Austria, Germany, France and Luxembourg and
terminates at the North Sea and at the ports in Netherlands near
Rotterdam
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There are many other important tributaries that flow into the Rhine,
the Rhine splits into two tributaries near Emmerich in Germany and
Zevenaar in Netherlands. Those are the Lek on the north and the Waal
on the south. There are many tributaries such as the Mosselle (Mosel),
that runs in an south westernly direction bordering Luxembourg and on
into France, the Neckar that flows south east at Manneheim on through
Heidelburg, Germany the Main, flowing in an easternly direction and
then south from Mainz through Frankfurt. East of Frankfurt is where
The Rhine-Main-Danube Canal links the Rhine with the Danube providing
a transcontinental route from the North Sea to the Black Sea. This
route is very important for the tones of cargo going through the Rhine
The total catchment area for the river is 185,000km2 Germany has