Where rivers flow

Rivers are a ubiquitous part of the landscape in the UK and few localities will be far away from a river in some stage of its development, whether it be an upland stream or a wide estuary.

On a global scale, rivers are inextricably linked to human development. Major centres of population throughout the world have grown up around rivers. Indeed, in the past the first evidence of human civilisation, in the form of farms and settled communities, was in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq.