Portal:Rivers

WikiProject Rivers

Talk page

The Rivers Portal

Introduction

A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it runs out of water, or only flow during certain seasons. Rivers are regulated by the water cycle, the processes by which water moves around the Earth. Water first enters rivers through precipitation, whether from rainfall, the runoff of water down a slope, the melting of glaciers or snow, or seepage from aquifers beneath the surface of the Earth.

Rivers flow in channeled watercourses and merge in confluences to form drainage basins, areas where surface water eventually flows to a common outlet. Drainage divides keep rivers separated from other courses of water and causes upstream water within the confines of the divide to fall into the downhill stream. Rivers have a great effect on the landscape around them. They may regularly overflow their banks and flood the surrounding area, spreading nutrients to the surrounding area. Sediment or alluvium carried by rivers shapes the landscape around it, forming deltas and islands where the flow slows down. Rivers rarely run in a straight line, instead, they bend or meander; the locations of a river's banks can change frequently. Rivers get their alluvium from erosion, which carves rock into canyons and valleys.

Rivers have sustained human and animal life for millennia, including the first human civilizations. The organisms that live around or in a river such as fish, aquatic plants, and insects have different roles, including processing organic matter and predation. Rivers have produced abundant resources for humans, including food, transportation, drinking water, and recreation. Humans have engineered rivers to prevent flooding, irrigate crops, perform work with water wheels, and produce hydroelectricity from dams. People associate rivers with life and fertility and have strong religious, political, social, and mythological attachments to them. (Full article...)

Selected article -

The Severn bore is a tidal bore seen on the tidal reaches of the River Severn in south western England. It is formed when the rising tide moves into the funnel-shaped Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary and the surging water forces its way upstream in a series of waves, as far as Gloucester and beyond. The bore behaves differently in different stretches of the river; in the lower, wider parts it is more noticeable in the deep channels as a slight roller, while the water creeps across the sand and mudflats. In the narrower, upper reaches, the river occupies the whole area between its banks and the bore advances in a series of waves that move upstream. Near Gloucester, the advancing water overcomes two weirs, and sometimes one in Tewkesbury, before finally petering out.

Bores are present on about 130 days in the year, concentrated on the days immediately following the new and full moon. The size and precise timing of the bore depend on such things as the time of high tide, the barometric pressure, the wind speed and direction, the amount of water coming down the river and how well scoured the main drainage channels are. There are a number of viewpoints from which the bore can be seen, or viewers can walk along the river bank or floodbanks. Historically, the bore has been of importance to shipping visiting the docks at Gloucester, but this was alleviated by the construction of an alternative route, the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, which opened in 1827. Nowadays the bore is of interest to surfers and canoeists who attempt to ride the waves. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

Selected Quote

Selected picture

The San Juan River and the entrenched meanders of Goosenecks State Park in Utah.

General images -

The following are images from various river-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A forest stream in the winter near Erzhausen, Germany (from River ecosystem)
Image 2A whitewater canoe with yellow air bags. (from Whitewater)
Image 3Leaf litter is an allochthonous energy source. (from River ecosystem)
Image 4In Dante's Inferno, Charon ferries souls across the subterranean river Acheron. (from Subterranean river)
Image 5A subterranean river in the Cross Cave system of Slovenia. (Scale shown by people in photograph.) (from Subterranean river)
Image 6Cascade in the Pyrénées (from River ecosystem)
Image 7Castle Geyser, Yellowstone National Park (from River ecosystem)
Image 8Periphyton (from River ecosystem)
Image 9Example of a river food web. Bacteria can be seen in the red box at the bottom. Bacteria (and other decomposers, like worms) decompose and recycle nutrients back to the habitat, which is shown by the light blue arrows. Without bacteria, the rest of the food web would starve, because there would not be enough nutrients for the animals higher up in the food web. The dark orange arrows show how some animals consume others in the food web. For example, lobsters may be eaten by humans. The dark blue arrows represent one complete food chain, beginning with the consumption of algae by the water flea, Daphnia, which is consumed by a small fish, which is consumed by a larger fish, which is at the end consumed by the great blue heron. (from River ecosystem)
Image 10This stream operating together with its environment can be thought of as forming a river ecosystem. (from River ecosystem)
Image 11The cave of source of the Buna can be entered by boat and dived through a cave system serving as an effluence of the Zalomka. (from Subterranean river)
Image 12The Puerto Princesa cave can be entered by boat. (from Subterranean river)
Image 13Whitewater at Yosemite (from Whitewater)
Image 14Different biofilm components in streams. Principal components are algae and bacteria. (from River ecosystem)
Image 15A pensive Cooplacurripa River, NSW (from River ecosystem)
Image 16A weir on the River Calder, West Yorkshire (from River ecosystem)
Image 17The brook trout is native to small streams, creeks, lakes, and spring ponds. (from River ecosystem)
Image 18Anthropogenic influences on river systems. Examples are mainly from settings with a modest technological influence, especially in the period of about 10,000 to 4000 cal yr BP. (from River ecosystem)
Image 19Devil's Throat Cave subterranean river from above (from Subterranean river)
Image 20Map of the world showing elevation levels (from Upland and lowland)
Image 21Common water hyacinth in flower (from River ecosystem)
Image 22Rapids in Mount Robson Provincial Park (from River ecosystem)
Image 23Co-occurrence network of a bacterial community in a stream (from River ecosystem)
Image 24Rafting is a watersport where buoyancy aids, helmets and wetsuits are mandatory and often imposed by law, due to the constant risk of falling off the boat and into the rapids (from Whitewater)
Image 25Flowing rivers can act as dispersal vectors for plant matter and invertebrates. (from River ecosystem)
Image 26The Effra is one of the subterranean rivers of London. It empties into the Thames by Vauxhall Bridge, from which this photograph was taken. (from Subterranean river)
Image 27Pondweed is an autochthonous energy source. (from River ecosystem)
Image 28New Zealand longfin eels can weigh over 50 kilograms. (from River ecosystem)

Did you know?

... that the 2010 sockeye salmon run on the Adams River (pictured) in British Columbia, Canada, is expected to be the largest since 1913, with an estimated 9 million fish returning to the river to spawn?
... that three swimming holes on Big Wapwallopen Creek are the most dangerous ones in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania?
... that the name for the Texas stream Cibolo Creek comes from the Native American and Spanish word for Buffalo, who were hunted along its steep banks?

Related portals

Selected Panorama

The Indus River near Leh, Ladakh, India

Topics

Subcategories

Select [►] to view subcategories

Rivers

Categories by river

Rivers by city

Rivers by continent

Rivers by country

Rivers by mountain range

Rivers by type

Lists of rivers

Rivers-related lists

Whitewater sports

River bays

River bifurcations

River crossings

River cruise companies

Sea and river deities

River deltas

Former rivers

Hebrew Bible rivers

Heritage Rivers

International rivers

River islands

Locks (water navigation)

River morphology

Mythological rivers

Personifications of rivers

River and lake piracy

Populated riverside places

River ports

River regulation

Riparian zone

Sacred rivers

Shipwrecks in rivers

River surfing

Tidal bores

Transborder rivers

River valleys

Riverine warfare

Water-meadows

Works about rivers

River stubs

Wikipedia categories named after rivers

Quality content

This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Rivers}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

Featured articles

Featured lists

Good articles

Things to do

Join WikiProject Rivers
Help select future pictures and articles.
Add items to Did You Know?
Add the portal link to the top of the See Also section of all relevant pages. This can be done by adding {{Portal|Rivers}} immediately under the section header.

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Commons
Free media repository
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals
Wikidata
Free knowledge base
Wikinews
Free-content news
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations
Wikisource
Free-content library
Wikiversity
Free learning tools
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus

More portals

Discover Wikipedia using portals

Rivers, streams and springs
Rivers (lists)	Alluvial river Braided river Blackwater river Channel Channel pattern Channel types Confluence Distributary Drainage basin Mountain river Subterranean river River bifurcation River ecosystem River source Tributary
Streams	Arroyo Beck Bourne Burn Chalk stream Coulee Current Stream bed Stream channel Streamflow Stream gradient Stream pool Perennial stream Winterbourne
Springs (list)	Estavelle/Inversac Geyser Holy well Hot spring list list in the US Karst spring list Mineral spring Ponor Rhythmic spring Spring horizon
Sedimentary processes and erosion	Abrasion Anabranch Aggradation Armor Bed load Bed material load Granular flow Debris flow Deposition Dissolved load Downcutting Erosion Headward erosion Knickpoint Palaeochannel Progradation Retrogradation Saltation Secondary flow Sediment transport Suspended load Wash load Water gap
Fluvial landforms	Ait Alluvial fan Antecedent drainage stream Avulsion Bank Bar Bayou Billabong Canyon Chine Cut bank Estuary Floating island Fluvial terrace Gill Gulch Gully Glen Meander scar Mouth bar Oxbow lake Riffle-pool sequence Point bar Ravine Rill River island Rock-cut basin Sedimentary basin Sedimentary structures Strath Thalweg River valley Wadi
Fluvial flow	Helicoidal flow International scale of river difficulty Log jam Meander Plunge pool Rapids Riffle Shoal Stream capture Waterfall list of waterfalls Whitewater
Surface runoff	Agricultural wastewater First flush Urban runoff
Floods and stormwater	100-year flood Crevasse splay Flash flood Flood Urban flooding Non-water flood Flood barrier Flood control Flood forecasting Flood-meadow Floodplain Flood pulse concept Flooded grasslands and savannas Inundation Storm Water Management Model Return period
Point source pollution	Effluent Industrial wastewater Sewage
River measurement and modelling	Baer's law Baseflow Bradshaw model Discharge (hydrology) Drainage density Exner equation Groundwater model Hack's law Hjulström curve Hydrograph Hydrological model Hydrological transport model Infiltration (hydrology) Main stem Playfair's law Relief ratio River Continuum Concept Rouse number Runoff curve number Runoff model (reservoir) Stream gauge WAFLEX Wetted perimeter Volumetric flow rate
River engineering	Aqueduct Balancing lake Canal Check dam Dam Drop structure Daylighting Detention basin Erosion control Fish ladder Floodplain restoration Flume Infiltration basin Leat Levee River morphology Retention basin Revetment Riparian-zone restoration Stream restoration Weir
River sports	Canyoning Fly fishing Rafting River surfing Riverboarding Stone skipping Triathlon Whitewater canoeing Whitewater kayaking Whitewater slalom
Related	Aquifer Aquatic toxicology Body of water Hydraulic civilization Limnology Riparian zone River valley civilization River cruise Sacred waters Surface water Wild river
Rivers by length Rivers by discharge rate Drainage basins Whitewater rivers Flash floods River name etymologies Countries without rivers

River morphology
Large-scale features	Alluvial plain Drainage basin Drainage system (geomorphology) Estuary Strahler number (stream order) River valley River delta River sinuosity
Alluvial rivers	Anabranch Avulsion (river) Bar (river morphology) Braided river Channel pattern Cut bank Floodplain Meander Meander cutoff Mouth bar Oxbow lake Point bar Riffle Rapids Riparian zone River bifurcation River channel migration River mouth Slip-off slope Stream pool Thalweg
Bedrock river	Canyon Knickpoint Plunge pool
Bedforms	Ait Antidune Dune Current ripple
Regional processes	Aggradation Base level Degradation (geology) Erosion and tectonics River rejuvenation
Mechanics	Deposition (geology) Water erosion Exner equation Hack's law Helicoidal flow Playfair's law Sediment transport List of rivers that have reversed direction
Category