a department in southeastern France, largely in the eastern spurs of the Massif Central. Area, 2,859 sq km. Population, 1,425,000 (1973). The capital is Lyon.
Rhône is one of the most economically developed departments in France. In 1968 industry and agriculture employed 38 and 5 percent of the economically active population, respectively. Industries include machine building (motor vehicles, river vessels, textile machinery), electrical engineering, and textiles. There is also a chemical industry; of special significance is the production of synthetic fiber at the Rhône-Poulenc plants.
About one-third of Rhône’s total land area is under cultivation, mainly in the lowlands of the Saône and Rhône river valleys. The chief crops are wheat, potatoes, vegetables, grapes, and fruit. Cattle and sheep are pastured in the mountains.
a river in Switzerland and France. It is 812 km long and drains an area of 98,000 sq km. Originating in the Rhône Glacier in the Alps, it flows through Lake Geneva and continues primarily south through the Rhône Valley. It divides into two branches that empty into the Gulf of Lions of the Mediterranean Sea west of Marseille, forming a delta with an area of more than 12,000 sq km. The Rhône’s chief right tributaries are the Ain, the Saône, and the Ardèche, and its main left tributaries are the Isère and the Durance. More than three-quarters of the area drained by the Rhône is mountain country.
In its upper and middle course, the Rhône is fed primarily by meltwaters from firn fields and glaciers. The highwater period is in the summer and the lower water period—when the water is extremely low—is in the winter. The Rhône’s flow is greatly increased after it is joined by the Saône, especially during the winter. Because, however, the Isère, Durance, and other left tributaries that originate in the Alps, when taken together, have a higher flow rate than the right tributaries, which are mostly rainfed, the Rhône preserves the basic characteristics of an alpine regime all the way to its mouth. The river carries more water than any other river in France; the mean flow rate at the mouth is 1,780 cu m per sec.
The Rhône is an important source of hydroelectric power and plays a major role in transportation and irrigation. The Rhône basin accounts for some 70 percent of French hydroelectric-power output. As of 1974 there were 11 hydroelectric power plants in operation on the river, including Génissiat, with a capacity of 390 MW, and André Blondel, with a capacity of 300 MW. A number of large hydroelectric power plants have been built on the Isère, Durance, and other tributaries.
The Rhône is navigable below the mouth of the Ain. It is connected via the Saône and numerous canals with the Rhine, the Moselle, the Meuse, the Seine, and the Loire. To bypass the delta with its sand bars, a navigation canal has been built from the city of Arles to Port-de-Bouc and on through the Etang de Berre and the Rove Tunnel to Marseille. The waters of the Rhône are used extensively to supply water to the Côte d’Azur and to provide irrigation. The cities of Geneva (Switzerland), Lyon, Valence, Avignon, and Aries (France) are on the river.