MEUSE (MAAS)

River, roughly 925 kilometers (575 miles) long, which rises in the northeastern part of France and flows from the Bel gianArdennes to the Dutch province of Limburg. Important Dutch cities in its course are Maastricht, Roermond, Venlo, and ’s Herto genbosch. The Meuse merges with the Rhine delta downstream and ends in the North Sea, via the Hollandse Diep and the Nieuwe Wa terweg (New Waterway), across Rotterdam, with its well-known in dustrial area called Maasvlakte (“Meuse plain”). The Meuse water level depends largely on rainfall, which has often led to floods in wet seasons in earlier times. Since its canalization around 1930, the river has become more profitable for the shipping industry. Gravel mining produced many lakes in the Limburg Meuse area during the second half of the 20th century.