river: Important River Systems

River valleys have been important centers of civilization; they afford travel routes, and their alluvial soils form good agricultural lands. Navigable rivers are important in commerce and have influenced the location of cities. Rivers with sufficient velocity and gradient can be used to produce hydroelectric power. Among the most important river systems of the world are the Nile, the Congo, the Niger, the Zambezi, and the Orange-Vaal in Africa; the Amazon, the Orinoco, and the Paraguay-Paraná in South America; the Mississippi-Missouri, the St. Lawrence, the Rio Grande, the Colorado, the Columbia, the Mackenzie-Peace, and the Yukon in North America; the Danube, the Rhine, the Rhône, the Seine, the Po, the Tagus, the Thames, the Loire, the Elbe, the Oder, the Don, the Volga, and the Dnieper in Europe; the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Ob-Irtysh, the Yenisei, the Lena, the Syr Darya, the Amu Darya, the Amur, the Huang He, the Chang (Yangtze), the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Indus, the Ayeyarwady, and the Mekong in Asia; and the Murray-Darling in Australia.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Important River Systems
• Bibliography

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