Professional Documents
Culture Documents
geography, a confluence (also: conflux) occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join
together to form a single channel.[1] A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point
where a tributary joins a larger river (main stem); or where two streams meet to become
the source of a river of a new name (such as the confluence of
the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers at Pittsburgh, forming the Ohio); or where two separated
channels of a river (forming a river island) rejoin at the downstream end.
Contents
Hydrodynamic features of a river/flume confluence can be separated into six identifiable distinct zones, also
called confluence flow zones.
Hydrodynamic behaviour of flow in a confluence can be divided into six distinct features[7] which are
commonly called confluence flow zones (CFZ). These include
1. Stagnation zone
2. Flow deflection zone
3. Flow separation zone / recirculation zone
4. Maximum velocity zone
5. Flow recovery zone
6. Shear layers
The fountain at Point State Park in Pittsburgh, at the apex of the confluence of the Allegheny (top) and
the Monongahela
Since rivers often serve as political boundaries, confluences sometimes demarcate three abutting
political entities, such as nations, states, or provinces, forming a tripoint. Various examples are found
in the list below.
A number of major cities, such as Chongqing, St. Louis, and Khartoum, arose at confluences; further
examples appear in the list. Within a city, a confluence often forms a visually prominent point, so that
confluences are sometimes chosen as the site of prominent public buildings or monuments, as
in Koblenz, Lyon, and Winnipeg. Cities also often build parks at confluences, sometimes as projects
of municipal improvement, as at Portland and Pittsburgh. In other cases, a confluence is an
industrial site, as in Philadelphia or Mannheim. Often a confluence lies in the shared floodplain of the
two rivers and nothing is built on it, for example at Manaus, described below.
One other way that confluences may be exploited by humans is as sacred places in religions.
Rogers suggests that for the ancient peoples of the Iron Age in northwest Europe, watery locations
were often sacred, especially sources and confluences.[8] Pre-Christian Slavic peoples chose
confluences as the sites for fortified triangular temples, where they practiced human sacrifice and
other sacred rites.[9] In Hinduism, the confluence of two sacred rivers often is a pilgrimage site for
ritual bathing.[10] In Pittsburgh, a number of adherents to Mayanism consider their city's confluence to
be sacred.[11]
Notable confluences[edit]
Africa[edit]
At Lokoja, Nigeria, the Benue River flows into the Niger.
At Kazungula in Zambia, the Chobe River flows into the Zambezi. The confluence defines
the tripoint of Zambia (north of the rivers), Botswana (south of the rivers) and Namibia (west of
the rivers). The land border between Botswana and Zimbabwe to the east also reaches the
Zambezi at this confluence, so there is a second tripoint (Zambia-Botswana-Zimbabwe) only 150
meters downstream from the first. See Kazungula and Quadripoint, and Gallery below for image.
The Sudanese capital of Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue
Nile, the beginning of the Nile.
Asia[edit]
The Seine becomes a single channel at the west end of the Île de la Cité in Paris. The Pont Neuf can be seen.
Seine[edit]
The Seine divides in the historical center of Paris, flowing around two river islands, the Île Saint-
Louis and the Île de la Cité. At the downstream confluence, where the river becomes a single
channel again, the Île de la Cité is crossed by the famous Pont Neuf, adjacent to an equestrian
statue of King Henri IV and the historically more recent Vert Galant park. The site has repeatedly
been portrayed by artists including Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro.
Further upstream, the Marne empties into the Seine at Charenton-le-Pont and Alfortville, just
southeast of the Paris city limits. The site is dominated by the Huatian Chinagora, a four-star
hotel under Chinese management.
Rhine[edit]
The Rhine carries much river traffic, and major inland ports are found at its confluence with
the Ruhr at Duisburg, and with the Neckar at Mannheim; see Mannheim Harbour.
The Main flows into the Rhine just south of Mainz.
The Mosel flows into the Rhine further north at Koblenz. The name "Koblenz" itself has its origin
in the Latin name "Confluentes". In German, this confluence is known as the "Deutsches Eck"
("German corner") and is the site of an imposing monument to German unification featuring an
equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I.
Upstream in Switzerland, a small town also named Koblenz (for the same reason) is where
the Aare joins the Rhine.
Danube basin[edit]
The triple confluence in Passau; from left to right, the Inn, the Danube, and the Ilz.
Lyon, France lies where the Saône flows into the Rhone. A major new museum of science and
anthropology, the Musée des Confluences, opened on the site in 2014.
Near Toulouse, France lies where the Ariège (river) flows into the Garonne. Both take their
source in the Pyrenees.
The Lusatian Neisse flows into the Oder at a rural location in Poland opposite the German
village of Ratzdorf. The two rivers form the Oder-Neisse line, the postwar boundary of Germany
and Poland.
The Triangle of Three Emperors, a former political tripoint, lies in present-day Poland. The
empires that abutted (in the decades before World War I) were the Austrian, German,
and Russian.
Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish Lapland and one of the largest towns above the Arctic Circle, is
at the confluence of rivers Ounasjoki and Kemijoki.
Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine is located (and named after) on the confluence of the Saksahan and Inhulets
River.
The Oka flows into the Volga at Nizhny Novgorod in Russia. The Alexander Nevsky
Cathedral overlooks the site.
The English city of Southampton is built at the confluence of the tidal estuaries of the River
Test and River Itchen which combine to form Southampton Water estuary.[19]
North America[edit]
Mississippi basin