The Rhine, artery of Europe : human interference in the delta and international cooperation in the basin of the Rhine : conference on the Lower Mississippi Delta in Memphis

After a brief comparison between the Mississippi and the Rhine follows a description of the irreversible interference of mankind in the deltaic areas of the Rhine since historic times. The initiative of the inhabitants to protect the land against high waterlevel organized in waterboards, the major corrections on the deltabranches of Rhine and Meuze in the 18th, 19th and 20th century, the large scale transformations in the 20th century, the ecological conflict and compromise during the execution of the Delta plan, the development of a managerial supply system by combinning the Zuyderzee works, the Delta works and the Rhine canalisation to obtain a rational use of water, the international promotion of common interests of all riparian states of the Rhine, the pollution of the Rhine from the hinterland, the transport of contaminated sediments, finally the need for a target situation to develop a sustainable concept for the Rhine and North Sea.