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Understanding
Rivers
A river is a large, natural stream of flowing
water. Rivers are found on every continent
and on nearly every kind of land.

GRADES SUBJECTS
5 - 12+ Earth Science, Biology, Ecology,
Geography, Physical
Geography, Geology

P H OTO G R A P H
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Jinsha River
The Jinsha River is Manage Preferences
the westernmost
tributary of the
Yangtze River in
China. The muddy
waters of the Jinsha
are yellow due to
the rich silt that
flows in the river.

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 P H OTO G R A P H

BY X I LU O,

MYS H OT

P H OTO G R A P H P H OTO G R A P H P H OTO G R A P H

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Learning materials abundance

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large amount.

Lesson from Esri:

Where Rivers Run
acid rain

A river is a large, natural

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 A river is a large, natural
stream of flowing water. precipitation with
Rivers are found on every high levels of nitric
continent and on nearly and sulfuric acids.
every kind of land. Some Acid rain can be
flow all year round. Others manmade or occur
flow seasonally or during naturally.
wet years. A river may be
only kilometers long or it
may span much of a agribusiness
continent.
the strategy of
applying profit-
The longest rivers in the
making practices t
world are the Nile in Africa
the operation of
and the Amazon in South
farms and ranches
America. Both rivers flow
through many countries. For
centuries, scientists have
agriculture
debated which river is
longer. Measuring a river is the art and science
difficult because it is hard to of cultivating land
pinpoint its exact beginning for growing crops
and end. Also, the length of (farming) or raising
rivers can change as they livestock (ranching
meander, are dammed, or

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 their deltas grow and algae
recede.

(singular: alga)
The Amazon is estimated to
diverse group of
be between 6,259
aquatic organisms
kilometers (3,903 miles) and
the largest of whic
6,800 kilometers (4,225
are seaweeds.
miles) long. The Nile is
estimated to be between
5,499 kilometers (3,437
alluvium
miles) and 6,690 kilometers
(4,180 miles) long. There is gravel, sand, and
no debate, however, that smaller materials
the Amazon carries more deposited by
water than any other river flowing water.
on Earth. Approximately
one-fifth of all the
fresh water entering the Amazon
oceans comes from the
in ancient Greek
Amazon.
mythology, a
woman belonging
Rivers are important for
to a tribe of all-
many reasons. One of the
female warriors.
most important things they
do is carry large quantities

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 of water from the land to anaconda
the ocean. There, seawater
very large snake
constantly evaporates. The
native to South
resulting water vapor forms
America.
clouds. Clouds carry
moisture over land and
release it as precipitation.
annual
This freshwater feeds rivers
and smaller streams. The yearly.
movement of water
between land, ocean and air
is called the water cycle. The arid
water cycle constantly
dry.
replenishes Earth’s supply of
fresh water, which is
essential for almost all living
bacteria
things.

Anatomy of a River (singular:

bacterium) single-

No two rivers are exactly celled organisms

alike. Yet all rivers have found in every

certain features in common ecosystem on Eart

and go through similar

stages as they age.
bacteriophage

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 bacteriophage

The beginning of a river is virus that infects

called its source or bacteria.
headwaters. The source may
be a melting glacier, such as
the Gangotri Glacier, the barge
source of the Ganges River
large, flat-
in Asia. The source could be
bottomed boat
melting snow, such as the
used to transport
snows of the Andes, which
cargo.
feed the Amazon River. A
river’s source could be a lake
with an outflowing stream,
Blue Nile
such as Lake Itasca in the
U.S. state of Minnesota, the tributary of the Ni
source of the Mississippi River flowing from
River. A spring bubbling out Lake Tana in
of the ground can also be Ethiopia and
the headwaters of a river. meeting the White
The source of the Danube Nile at Khartoum,
River is a spring in the Black Sudan, to form the
Forest of Germany. Nile River.

From its source, a river flows

downhill as a small stream. boulder

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 Precipitation and large rock.
groundwater add to the
river’s flow. It is also fed by
other streams, called bustling
tributaries. For instance, the
busy.
Amazon River receives
water from more than 1,000
tributaries. Together, a river
canal
and its tributaries make up a
river system. A river system artificial waterway.
is also called a
drainage basin or
watershed. A river’s canyon
watershed includes the
deep, narrow valle
river, all its tributaries and
with steep sides.
any groundwater resources
in the area.

carbon
The end of a river is its
mouth. Here, the river
empties into another body
of water—a larger river, a
lake or the ocean. Many of
the largest rivers empty into
the ocean. chemical element
with the symbol C,

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 with the symbol C,

The flowing water of a river which forms the

has great power to carve basis of all known

and shape the landscape. life.

Many landforms, like the

Grand Canyon in the U.S.
state of Arizona, were cargo

sculpted by rivers over time. goods carried by a

This process is called ship, plane, or othe
weathering or erosion. vehicle.

The energy of flowing river

water comes from the force caviar
of gravity, which pulls the
delicacy made from
water downward. The
the eggs of
steeper the slope of a river,
sturgeon or other
the faster the river moves
fish.
and the more energy it has.

The movement of water in a

channel
river is called a current. The
current is usually strongest deepest part of a
near the river’s source. shallow body of
Storms can also increase the water, often a
current. A swift current can passageway for

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 move even large boulders. ships.
These break apart, and the
pieces that are carried in the
moving water scrape and Charon
dig into the river bottom, or
in ancient Greek
bed.
mythology, the
ferryman who
Little by little, a river tears
transported the
away rocks and soil along its
souls of the dead
bed, and carries them
across the river Sty
downstream. The river
and to the
carves a narrow, V-shaped
underworld, Hade
valley. Rapids and waterfalls
are common to rivers,
particularly near their cholera
sources.
infectious,

Eventually, the river flows to sometimes fatal

lower land. As the slope of disease that harms

its course flattens, the river the intestines.

cuts less deeply into its bed.

Instead, it begins to wind
civilization
from side to side in looping
bends called meanders. This
action widens the river

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 valley.
complex way of life
that developed as
At the same time, the river
humans began to
begins to leave behind
develop urban
some of the rocks, sand and
settlements.
other solid material it
collected upstream. This
material is called sediment.
cloud
Once the sediment is
deposited, it is called visible mass of tiny
alluvium. Alluvium may water droplets or
contain a great deal of ice crystals in Earth
eroded topsoil from atmosphere.
upstream and from the
banks of its meanders.
Because of this, a river coal
deposits very fertile soil on
dark, solid fossil fu
its flood plain. A flood plain
mined from the
is the area next to the river
earth.
that is subject to flooding.

The deepest part of a

compensation
river bed is called a channel.
The channel is usually fee or money paid

located in the middle of a for goods, services

debt, loss, injury, o

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 debt, loss, injury, o
river. Here, the current is
suffering.
often strong. In large rivers,
ships travel in channels.
Engineers may dredge, or
consumer
dig, deeper channels so
more water can flow organism on the
through the river or the food chain that
river can transport larger depends on
ships. autotrophs
(producers) or oth
Near the end of its journey, consumers for food
the river slows and may nutrition, and
appear to move sluggishly. energy.
It has less energy to cut into
the land and it can no
longer carry a heavy load of contiguous
sediment. Where the river
land, space, or
meets the ocean or a lake, it
features that are in
may deposit so much
direct contact.
sediment that new land, a
delta, is formed.

continent
Not all rivers have deltas.
The Amazon does not have one of the seven
a true delta, for instance. main land masses o
Earth.

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 The strength of the tides Earth.

and currents of the Atlantic

Ocean prevent the build-up
of sediment. Deltas almost crop

always have fertile soil. The agricultural

Nile Delta and the Ganges produce.
Delta are the chief
agricultural areas for Egypt
and Bangladesh, for crown
instance.
headgear worn by
monarch or other
Rivers Through History
ruler.

Rivers have always been

important to people. In
cruise ship
prehistoric times, people
settled along the banks of vessel transporting
rivers, where they found fish tourists on a trip.
to eat and water for
drinking, cooking and
bathing. current

Later, people learned that

the fertile soil along rivers is steady, predictabl

good for growing crops. The flow of fluid within

larger body of tha

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 larger body of tha
world’s first great
fluid.
civilizations arose in the
fertile flood plains of the
Nile in Egypt, the Indus in
dam
southern Asia, the Tigris and
the Euphrates in the Middle to block a flow of
East, and the Huang water.
(Yellow) in China.

Centuries later, rivers DDT

provided routes for trade,
(dichloro-dipheny
exploration and settlement.
trichloroethane)
The Volga River in Eastern
toxic chemical use
Europe allowed
as an insecticide b
Scandinavian and Russian
illegal for most use
cultures, near the source of
in the U.S. since
the river, to trade goods
1972.
and ideas with Persian
cultures, near the mouth of
the Volga in southern
decay
Europe. The Hudson River in
the U.S. state of New York is
named after English
explorer Henry Hudson,
who used the river to to rot or

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 explore what was then the decompose.

New World.

When towns and industries delicacy

developed, the rushing

food or dish notab
water of rivers supplied
for its rarity or cost
power to operate
machinery. Hundreds of
factories operated mills delta
powered by the Thames in
England, the Mississippi in the flat, low-lying
plain that
the United States and the
Ruhr in Germany. sometimes forms a
the mouth of a rive
from deposits of
Rivers remain important
sediments.
today. If you look at a world
map, you will see that many
well-known cities are on
development
rivers. Great river cities
include New York City, New
York; Buenos Aires,
Argentina; London,
England; Cairo, Egypt;
Kolkata, India; and construction or
Shanghai, China. In fact, preparation of land

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 rivers are usually the oldest for housing,
parts of cities. Paris, France, industry, or
for instance, was named agriculture.
after the Iron Age people
known as the Parisii, who
lived on the islands and dissolved
banks of the Seine River, oxygen

which flows through the measure of the

city. amount of oxygen
in a substance,
Rivers continue to provide usually water.
transportation routes, water
for drinking and for
irrigating farmland, and domestication
power for homes and
the process of
industries.
adapting wild
plants or animals fo
Rivers of Europe
human use.

The longest river in Europe

is the Volga. It flows
drainage
approximately 3,685
basin
kilometers (2,290 miles)
across Russia and empties
into the Caspian Sea. The

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 Volga has been used for
centuries to transport
timber from northern an entire river

forests, grain from farms system or an area

along its valley, and drained by a river

manufactured goods. The and its tributaries.

river is also known for its Also called a

sturgeon, a type of large watershed.

fish whose eggs are used to
make a famous delicacy—
Russian caviar. dredge

to remove sand, si
The Thames, in England, is
or other material
one of Europe’s most
from the bottom o
historic rivers. Along its a body of water.
banks stands the city of
London, a bustling
urban area for more than a dugout
thousand years. By 100 CE, canoe
London had already
small boat made b
become an important
hollowing out a log
Roman settlement and
or tree trunk.
trading post. Because of its
location on the river and
near the seacoast, London
dwarf

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 dwarf
became England’s principal
city and trade center.

Europe’s busiest river is the

Rhine, which runs from the
Alps in Switzerland, through to make something
Germany and the appear small by
Netherlands, and empties having it appear
into the North Sea. It flows next to something
through many industrial and much larger.
farming regions and carries
barges laden with farm
products, coal, iron ore and earthquake
a variety of manufactured
the sudden shakin
goods.
of Earth's crust
caused by the
Rivers of Asia
release of energy
along fault lines or
Asia’s longest and most
from volcanic
important river is the
activity.
Yangtze, in China. It flows
from the Dangla Mountains,
between Tibet and China’s
ecosystem
Qinghai province. It empties
in the East China Sea 6,300 community and
interactions of livin

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 kilometers (3,915 miles) later. interactions of livin

The Yangtze is a highway for and nonliving thin

trade through the world’s in an area.

most populous country.

The Yangtze is also an electricity

agricultural river. Its valley is set of physical

a major rice-growing region phenomena
and its water is used to associated with th
irrigate fields. Many Chinese presence and flow
live on the river in of electric charge.
houseboats or sailboats
called junks.

emission
The Yangtze River is the
discharge or
home of the world’s most
release.
powerful
hydroelectric power plant,
the Three Gorges Dam.
engineering
Eventually, the plant will be
able to constantly produce the art and science
22,500 megawatts of power. of building,
China’s rural population will maintaining,
have access to affordable moving, and
electricity for homes, demolishing

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 businesses, schools and structures.
hospitals. Creating the
Three Gorges Dam was one
of the largest engineering equatorial
feats in history. Engineers
having to do with
dammed the Yangtze,
the equator or the
creating a 39.3-cubic-
area around the
kilometer (31.9 million acre-
equator.
foot) reservoir, or artificial
lake.

erosion
The Ganges is the greatest
river on Asia's Indian act in which earth i

subcontinent. It is sacred to worn away, often b

the millions of followers of water, wind, or ice

the Hindu religion. For

thousands of years, Hindus
evaporate
have worshipped the river
as a goddess, Ganga Ma to change from a
(Mother Ganges). Hindus liquid to a gas or
believe the river’s water vapor.
purifies the soul and heals
the body. Millions of people
use the Ganges every day exploration
for bathing, drinking and

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 industry.
study and
The historic Tigris and investigation of
Euphrates river system flows unknown places,
from Turkey through Syria concepts, or issues
and Iraq and into the Persian
Gulf. The rivers lie in an area
called the Fertile Crescent. export
The region between the
good or service
two rivers, known as
traded to another
Mesopotamia, is the so-
area.
called “cradle of civilization.”
The earliest evidence of
civilization and agriculture—
extensive
farming and domestication
of animals—appears in the very large.

Fertile Crescent.

Rivers of North America factory

In North America, rivers

served as highways for
native tribes and, later, for
European explorers.

one or more

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 French explorers began buildings used for
traveling the St. Lawrence the manufacture o
and other rivers of Canada a product.
in the 1500s. They found an
abundance of fish and other
wildlife, and they farm
encountered Native
land cultivated for
American tribes who hunted
crops, livestock, or
beaver. The explorers took
both.
beaver pelts back to
Europe, where they were
used to make fashionable
fault
hats. Soon, hunters
explored and traveled a crack in the Earth
networks of rivers in North crust where there
America in search of beaver has been
pelts. The establishment of movement.
trading posts along the
rivers later opened the way
for permanent European feat
settlers.
accomplishment o
achievement.
The St. Lawrence River is still
a major waterway. The river,
which empties into the
ferry

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 ferry
Atlantic, is linked to the
Great Lakes by the
boat or ship that
St. Lawrence Seaway—a
transports people
series of canals, locks, dams
cargo, and goods
and lakes. The St. Lawrence
across a waterway.
Seaway allows oceangoing
ships to enter the interior of
the continent.
fertile

The Mississippi is the chief able to produce

river of North America. It crops or sustain
flows approximately 3,766 agriculture.
kilometers (2,340 miles)
through the heart of the
United States, from its Fertile
source in Minnesota to its Crescent

delta in Louisiana and the

Gulf of Mexico.

Spanish and French

explorers first traveled the
Mississippi in the 1500s and
1600s. In 1803, the United
region extending
States bought almost the
from the eastern
entire Mississippi River
Mediterranean

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 Mediterranean
Valley from France as part of coast through
the Louisiana Purchase. Southwest Asia to
After that, the Mississippi the Persian Gulf.
was widely traveled by
traders and settlers on rafts,
boats and barges. fertilizer

With the introduction of the nutrient-rich

steamboat, a new, industrial, chemical substanc
era began on the (natural or
Mississippi. Paddle wheelers manmade) applied
carried trade goods up and to soil to encourag
down the river. Soon, plant growth.
workboats were joined by
cruise ships and other
luxurious passenger vessels. floodplain
Writer Mark Twain, who was
flat area alongside
once a steamboat pilot on
stream or river tha
the river, described this era
is subject to
in his book Life on the
flooding.
Mississippi.

Over time, the Mississippi

food web
increased in importance as a
trade route. Today, it carries

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 cargo ships and barges in
lines that may extend for
more than a kilometer.
Large quantities of all related food
petroleum, coal and other chains in an
bulky goods are conveyed ecosystem. Also
on the river by massive called a food cycle
barges pushed by powerful
towboats.

fossil fuel
North America’s Colorado
coal, oil, or natural
River is famous for forming
gas. Fossil fuels
the Grand Canyon in
formed from the
Arizona. For millions of
remains of ancient
years, the river has cut its
plants and animals
way through layers of rock
to carve the canyon. Long
ago, the river flowed
freighter
through a flat plain. Then
the Earth’s crust began to large ship used for
rise, lifting the land. The carrying heavy
river began cutting into the cargo, or freight.
land. The Grand Canyon is
now about one and a half
kilometers (one mile) deep freshwater

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 at its deepest point, and 29
water that is not
kilometers (18 miles) wide at
salty.
its widest.

Rivers of South America

garbage

The strength of the Amazon

River in South America
dwarfs other rivers on the trash or waste
planet. The amount of water material.
flowing through the
Amazon is greater than the
amount carried by the glacier
Mississippi, the Yangtze,
mass of ice that
and the Nile combined.
moves slowly over
land.
The Amazon begins as an
icy stream high in the Andes
mountains of Peru. It flows
grain
through Brazil and empties
into the Atlantic Ocean. The harvested seed of
Amazon and its tributaries such grasses as
drain a basin that covers an wheat, oats, and
area equal to three-fourths rice.
of the contiguous United

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 States.
gravity

The first Europeans to see

the Amazon were Spanish
explorers, who traveled it in
the 1500s. They
encountered a group of
people who all appeared to
physical force by
be women, or so the story
which objects
goes. The explorers called
attract, or pull
them Amazons, after female
toward, each othe
warriors described in Greek
mythology. The name
Amazon was later given to
Great Lakes
the river.
largest freshwater
For much of its course, the bodies in the world
Amazon flows through the located in the
world’s largest tropical rain United States and
forest. The region has Canada. Lake Huro
abundant and unusual Lake Ontario, Lake
wildlife, including flesh- Michigan, Lake Erie
eating fish called piranhas; and Lake Superior
huge fish called pirarucu, make up the Great
which can weigh more than Lakes.

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 125 kilograms (275 pounds);
and giant snakes called
anacondas. greenhouse
gas

Some Amazon tribes remain

independent of Western
culture. The Tagaeri people,
for instance, continue to live
a nomadic life based around
the Amazon and its
tributaries in the rain forest
of Ecuador. Because of the
demand for timber from the
rain forest, the land of the gas in the
indigenous people of the atmosphere, such
Amazon is shrinking. Today, carbon dioxide,
there are fewer than 100 methane, water
Tagaeri living in the rain vapor, and ozone,
forest. that absorbs solar
heat reflected by
Rivers provide energy to the surface of the
many South American Earth, warming the
communities. The Itaipú atmosphere.
Dam crosses the Paraná
River on the Brazil-Paraguay
groundwater

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 border. Construction of the groundwater

dam required the labor of water found in an

thousands of workers and aquifer.
cost more than $12 billion.
The dam’s power plant can
regularly produce some headwater
12,600 megawatts of
source of a river.
electricity. The huge
reservoir formed by the
dam supplies water for
hectare
drinking and for irrigation.
unit of measure
Rivers of Africa equal to 2.47 acres
or 10,000 square
Africa’s two largest rivers are meters.
the Nile and the Congo.

One tributary of the Nile, Henry

the White Nile, flows from Hudson
tiny streams in the
mountains of Burundi
through Lake Victoria, (died 1611) English
Africa’s largest lake. The explorer and
other tributary, the navigator.
Blue Nile, begins in Lake

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 Tana, Ethiopia. The two join
Hindu
at Khartoum, Sudan. The
Nile then flows through the religion of the
Sahara Desert in Sudan and Indian subcontinen
Egypt, and empties into the with many differen
Mediterranean Sea. Because sub-types, most
the area where the based around the
tributaries meet is close to idea of "daily
the two sources of the Nile, morality."
the area is called the
Upper Nile, even though it
is farther south honeybee
geographically. The
insect that, in a hiv
Lower Nile runs through
with other
Egypt.
honeybees,
produces honey.
One of the earliest
civilizations in the world
developed along the Lower
houseboat
Nile. Ancient Egyptian
civilization arose about
5,000 years ago. It was
directly related to the Nile
large, flat-
and its annual flooding.
bottomed boat
Each year, the river
used for residence

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 used for residence
overflowed, spreading rich but not suitable fo
sediment across its broad open water.
flood plain. This made the
land extremely fertile.
Egyptian farmers were able human
to grow plentiful crops. In rights
fact, ancient Egyptians
basic freedoms
called their land Kemet,
belonging to ever
which means “Black Land,”
individual, includin
because of the rich, black
the rights to social
soil deposited by the river.
and political
expression,
Egyptians also used the Nile
spirituality, and
as a major transportation
opportunity.
route to both the
Mediterranean and the
African interior. The
hydroelectric
Pschent, or double crown
power
worn by Egyptian monarchs,
combined symbolism from usable energy

both the Upper Nile and generated by

Lower Nile. A tall, white moving water

crown shaped like a bowling converted to

pin represented the lands of electricity.

the Upper Nile. This crown

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 was combined with a pointy
indigenous
red crown that had a curly
wire protruding from the characteristic to or
front. The red color of a specific place.
symbolized the red soils of
Lower Egypt, while the curly
wire represented a iron
honeybee. When putting on
chemical element
the Pschent, an Egyptian
with the symbol Fe
ruler assumed leadership for
the entire Nile.

Iron Age
The Nile provided
enterprising Egyptians with
material to form a powerful
civilization. From papyrus, a
tall reed that grew in the
river, Egyptians made a sort last of the
of paper, as well as rope, prehistoric "three
cloth, and baskets. ages," following th
Egyptians also built great Stone Age and the
cities, temples and Bronze Age, marke
monuments along the river, by the use of iron
including tombs for their for industry.
monarchs, or pharaohs.

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 Many of these ancient
irrigate
monuments are still
standing. to water.

The Congo River flows

across the middle of Africa, junk
through a huge equatorial
sailboat with squa
rain forest, before emptying
sails and, usually, a
in the Atlantic Ocean. The
flat bottom, used
Congo is second only to the
mostly in and
Amazon in terms of water
around China.
flow. It is the deepest river
in the world, with measured
depths of more than 230
labor
meters (750 feet). Huge
urban areas, including the work or
capital cities of Brazzaville, employment.
Republic of Congo, and
Kinshasa, Democratic
Republic of Congo, sit on laden
the banks of the river.
full or heavy with.

In the Democratic Republic

of Congo, the river is the
lagoon
principal highway for
shallow body of

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 shallow body of
transporting goods such as
water that may hav
cotton, coffee and sugar.
an opening to a
Boats traveling the river
larger body of
range from dugout canoes
water, but is also
to large freighters.
protected from it b
a sandbar or coral
The river also supplies an
reef.
abundance of fish to central
Africa. Fishermen use
baskets and nets hung from
lake
high poles across rushing
falls and rapids to catch fish. body of water
They also use more surrounded by lan
traditional nets operated
from either onshore or on
boats. lock

Rivers of Australia

Much of Australia is arid, but

rivers still run through it. structure on a
Australia’s principal rivers waterway where
are the Murray and the gates at each end
Darling, both in the allow the water
southeastern part of the level to raise and

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 continent. The Murray flows lower as they are
some 2,590 kilometers (1,610 opened and closed
miles) from the Snowy
Mountains to a lagoon on
the Indian Ocean. Near the Louisiana
town of Wentworth, the Purchase

Murray is joined by the (1803) land bough

Darling, a 2,739-kilometer by the United Stat
(1,702-mile) river that flows from France,
from the highlands of the extending from th
eastern coast. Mississippi River to
the Rocky
Indigenous Australians Mountains, and
placed great importance on Canada to the Gul
the Murray River. The of Mexico.
Murray valley had the
greatest population density
on the continent before the Lower Nile
arrival of Europeans in the
1600s.
northern section o

By the mid-1800s, European the Nile River.

farmers had settled along

both rivers and some of
their tributaries. Most luxurious

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 Australian farmers raised rich or self-
sheep and cattle. Riverboats indulgent.
began plying the waters
and towns grew up along
the banks. machinery

mechanical
Much of Australia’s farmland
appliances or tools
still lies within the Murray-
used in
Darling basin, where river
manufacturing.
water irrigates some 1.2
million hectares (3 million
acres). The region is the
Mark Twain
chief supplier of the
country’s agricultural (1835-1910, born
exports—wool, beef, wheat Samuel Langhorne
and oranges. Clemens) America
writer.
Polluted Rivers

For centuries, people have meander

depended on rivers for
large curve in a lak
many things. Rivers have
or stream.
provided waterways for
shipping, convenient
construction sites for cities,
meander

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 and fertile land for farming.
to wander aimlessl
Such extensive use of rivers
has contributed to their
pollution. River pollution
Mesopotamia
has come from directly
dumping garbage and ancient region
sewage, disposal of between the Tigri
toxic wastes from factories, and Euphrates
and agricultural runoff Rivers, today lying
containing fertilizers and mostly in Iraq.
pesticides.

By the 1960s, many of the Midwest

world’s rivers were so
polluted that fish and other
wildlife could no longer
survive in them. Their
waters became unsafe for
drinking, swimming and
area of the United
other uses. One of the most
States consisting o
famous examples of a
the following state
polluted river was the
Illinois, Indiana,
Cuyahoga. The Cuyahoga is
Iowa, Kansas,
a busy river in the U.S. state
Michigan,
of Ohio that empties into
Minnesota, Missou

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 Minnesota, Missou
Lake Erie. It is a major
Nebraska, North
highway for goods and
Dakota, Ohio, Sout
services from the Midwest
Dakota, and
to the Great Lakes. In 1969,
Wisconsin.
the oily pollution in the
Cuyahoga was so great that
the river actually caught fire
migrate
—something it had done
more than a dozen times in to move from one

the 19th and 20th centuries. place or activity to

another.

Since the 1969 fire, stricter

laws have helped clean up
polluted rivers. The laws mill

have restricted the machine used for

substances factories can grinding or crushin
dump into rivers, limited the various materials.
amount of agricultural
runoff, banned toxic
pesticides such as DDT, and monarch
required treatment of
sewage.

Although the situation in king or queen.

some parts of the world has

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 improved, serious problems
remain. The Citarum River in mouth

Indonesia, for instance, is place where a rive

often cited as the most empties its water.
polluted river in the world. Usually rivers ente
Textile factories near the another body of
Citarum dump toxic wastes water at their
into the river. The garbage mouths.
floating on top of the river is
so thick that water is
invisible. myth

legend or
Even after communities
traditional story.
have limited river pollution,
toxic chemicals may remain.
Many pollutants take years
New World
to dissolve. The pollutants
also build up in the river’s
wildlife. Toxic chemicals may
cling to algae, which are
eaten by insects or fish, the Western
which are then eaten by Hemisphere, made
larger fish or people. At up of the Americas
each stage of the river’s and their islands.
food web, the amount of

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 the toxic chemical increases.
nomad

In parts of North America person who moves

and Europe, there is also the from place to place
severe problem of acid rain. without a fixed
Acid rain develops when home.
emissions from factories and
vehicles mix with moisture
in the air. The acid that ore
forms can be toxic for many
deposit in the Eart
living things. Acid rain falls
of minerals
as rain and snow. It builds up
containing valuabl
in glaciers, streams and
metal.
lakes, polluting water and
killing wildlife.

paddle
Environmentalists,
wheeler
governments and
communities are trying to
understand and solve these
pollution problems. To
provide safe drinking water
and habitats where fish and
other wildlife can thrive, steamboat used
rivers must be kept clean. mostly on rivers
propelled by one o

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 propelled by one o

Dams more large wheels

outfitted with

A dam is a barrier that stops paddles or scoops

or diverts the flow of water

along a river. Humans have
papyrus
built dams for thousands of
years. aquatic plant nativ
to the
Dams are built for many Mediterranean Sea
purposes. Some dams
prevent flooding or allow
people to develop or Parisii
“reclaim” land previously
Iron Age people
submerged by a river. Other
and culture native
dams are used to change a
to the banks of the
river’s course for the benefit
Seine River.
of development or
agriculture. Still others
provide water supplies for
pelt
nearby rural or urban areas.
Many dams are used to animal skin or fur.
provide electricity to local
communities.
Persia

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 In 1882, the world’s first
hydroelectric power plant
empire that
was built on the Fox River in
dominated
the U.S. city of Appleton,
Mesopotamia from
Wisconsin. Since then,
about 550 to 330
thousands of hydroelectric
BCE. Most of the
plants have been built on
ancient Persian
rivers all over the world.
empire is in
These plants harness the
modern-day Iran.
energy of flowing water to
produce electricity. About 7
percent of all power in the pesticide
United States, and 19
percent of power in the
world, comes from
hydroelectric plants. China
is the world’s largest
producer of hydroelectric
power.

Hydroelectric power is
renewable because water is
constantly replenished
through precipitation.
Because hydroelectric

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 plants do not burn
fossil fuels, they do not emit
pollution or
natural or
greenhouse gases.
manufactured
However, hydroelectric
substance used to
power does have some
kill organisms that
negative effects on the
threaten agricultu
environment.
or are undesirable
Pesticides can be
Dams and hydroelectric
fungicides (which
plants change the flow and
kill harmful fungi),
temperature of rivers. These
insecticides (which
changes to the ecosystem
kill harmful insects
can harm fish and other
herbicides (which
wildlife that live in or near
kill harmful plants)
the river. And although
or rodenticides
hydroelectric plants do not
(which kill harmful
release greenhouse gases,
rodents.)
rotting vegetation trapped
in the dams’ reservoirs can
produce them. Decaying petroleum
plant material emits carbon
dioxide, a major greenhouse fossil fuel formed

gas, into the atmosphere. from the remains o

ancient organisms
Also called crude

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 Also called crude
Dams also have an effect on
oil.
people living near the
rivers. For example, more
than 1.3 million people had
pharaoh
to move from their homes
to make way for China’s ruler of ancient
Three Gorges Dam and its Egypt.
reservoir. Human rights
organizations claim that
many of these people did piranha
not receive the
compensation they were
promised in return for being carnivorous,

displaced. freshwater fish

native to South

In addition, dams can affect America. Also calle

fish populations and the caribe.

fertility of flood plains. Fish

may not be able to migrate
and spawn. Farmers that pirarucu

depended on the fertile large freshwater fi

flooding may be cut off
native to the
from the river by a dam. This Amazon. Also calle
can harm the livelihood of
arapaima.
fishermen and farmers who

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 live along the river, as well
as consumers who must pay plentiful
higher prices for food.
abundant or full.

Dams with very large

reservoirs may also trigger
pollution
earthquakes. Earthquakes
happen when two or more introduction of
of the tectonic plates that harmful materials
make up Earth’s crust slide into the
against each other. The environment.
weight of the water in the
reservoirs can cause existing
cracks, or faults, in these precipitation
plates to slip and create an
all forms in which
earthquake.
water falls to Earth
from the
River Management
atmosphere.

River management is the

process of balancing the
prehistoric
needs of many
stakeholders, or period of time tha

communities that depend occurred before th

on rivers. Rivers provide invention of writte

records.

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 records.
natural habitats for fish,
birds and other wildlife.
They also provide
protruding
recreation areas and
sporting opportunities such sticking out.
as fishing and kayaking.

Industries also depend on Pschent

rivers. Rivers transport
goods and people across
continents. They provide
affordable power for
millions of homes and
businesses. double crown wor
by Egyptian
Farmers and agribusinesses pharaohs,
often rely on rivers for symbolizing Uppe
transportation. Rivers also and Lower Egypt.
supply water for irrigation.

River managers must purify

consider the needs of all the
to cleanse
current and future
thoroughly.
stakeholders.

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 Credits

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 Where
Streams Rivers Run Ecosystem
Only about three s
percent of Earth’s How do rivers Fresh water is a
water is fresh and streams run precious resource
water. Of that,… to the sea? What on Earth's surface.
only about 1.2 is their impact?… It is also home t…
percent can be This activity was many diverse fish,
used as drinking developed by plant and
water; the rest is National crustacean
locked up in Geographic and species. The
glaciers, ice caps, habitats that
Esri to be used
and permafrost, with MapMaker, a freshwater
or buried deep67in 204
ecosystems
237
digital mapping
the ground. Most tool for the provide consist of
of our drinking lakes, rivers,
classroom. It is
water comes from one in a series of ponds, wetlands,
rivers and streams and
geoinquiry
streams. From lessons intended springs. Use
each river’s these classroom
to promote
source, the water geographic resources to
meanders thinking by using help students
through the maps and spatial explore and learn
landscape patterns to about
meeting up with acquire, these places.
other streams understand
IDEA SET C O L L E C T I Oand
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ecosystems One of the main
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around about
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world’syour
Teach water are
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students about
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these interactiv…
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is the There are two
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