Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water. It usually refers to the point where a tributary joins a more major river. The German city name Koblenz indicates, in Germanicized form, its site at the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle.

The term is also used to describe the meeting of tidal or other non-riverine bodies of water, such as two canalsThe U.S. Army Corps of Engineers refers to the confluence of the Assawoman Canal with the Bethany Loop Canal in Delaware. See: or a canal and a lake.Engineers in New Orleans refer to the confluence of the 17th Street Canal and Lake Pontchartrain. See: A one-mile (1.6 km) portion of the Industrial Canal in New Orleans accommodates the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal; ergo those three waterways are confluent there.

Confluence also describes a location where integer latitude and integer longitude lines cross. The point in extreme northeastern New Jersey at is such a confluence point. The Degree Confluence Project endeavors to catalog and photograph all such points on the globe.

Notes

Mündung (Gewässer) | Устье | Дельта

Physical geography | Waterways