The Grande-Eau River Basin (River processes)

The Rhone River basin encompasses 98,000 km2 of land in France and Switzerland and has its origins in the Saint-Gothard massif in Swiss Alps, with snow and ice melt from above the Gletsch Glacier and Rhone Glacier. From there it flows through Switzerland and collects water from numerous alpine torrents until its waters settle in Lake Geneva before continuing through France. The main tributaries of the Rhone run through the Vaud and Valais cantons of Switzerland. Students can narrow in on an area of the Rhone Basin for fieldwork studies. An excellent study area is the Grande-Eau river, which is a small tributary of the River Rhone flowing through the Val d’Ormont. Take a ramble along the Grande-Eau River at Les Diablerets to learn about river processes and landforms.