Talk:River island

Mississippi-bordered Islands?
Why isn't the area bordered by the Atchafalaya River, Mississippi River, Red River and Gulf of Mexico considered an island? Or for that matter, the area between the Arkansas River, Mississippi River and Bartholomew River? Either of these must be competitive for 2nd largest fluvial island.

List of river islands
The river island section should either go into a whole new list article or be nuked altogether. There are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of river islands. Americasroof (talk) 01:49, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Rhine delta islands
Unless someone can find a list, this one needs to be eliminated. Holland is at least three river islands. one branch of the Rhine, the IJssel, drains into the IJsselmeer, which then enters the sea through the Afsluitdijk spillway and through the IJ, an artificial channel which runs through central Amsterdam. A second branch, the Oude Rijn, empties into the sea near Leiden, and a third branch empties into the sea near Rotterdam. This third channel is called "Maas" even though hydraulic engineers have modified the course of the Maas so it doesn't empty into it. Plus, this is not a minor quibble-- these are some of the world's most heavily populated river islands.

I think that only naturally formed river islands should be included on this list. The IJ and Afsluitdijk, of course are artificial, and the Oude Rijn would have silted up if it wasn't for the canals that been built around it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.144.226.85 (talk) 03:05, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

Ganges delta islands
The Ganges-Brahmaputra delta is even more heavily populated than the Rhine delta, is much larger, and is less well-regulated. There may be dozens of heavily populated river islands there whose boundaries shift with floods.

Source for Kampala?
Despite a lot of searching, I can't find anything to support the assertion that the area around Kampala, Uganda, is the world's largest river island--or that it's an island at all. Every source I've found identifies the world's largest river island as Bananal Island in Brazil, including Wikipedia's article on Bananal. From Google Earth satellite images, the area around Kampala doesn't seem to be an island, and in particular the area southwest of Kampala seems to be a swamp that interrupts the small creek that would otherwise flow directly into Lake Victoria. The addition of Kampala to the article's table also seems questionable because the area given is approximate (approx. 61,000 km^2), while every other island in the table has an area given to the nearest square kilometer.

Here are some additional sources for Bananal being the largest river island:

http://www.worldislandinfo.com/SUPERLATIVESV2.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/51315/Bananal-Island

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/brazil/tocantins/ilha-do-bananal

http://www.visitpalmas.com/attractions/bananal-cantao

(Note that Brazil's Marajo is excluded from these superlatives because it's partly exposed to the ocean, rather than lying entirely in a river.)

If no one can provide a source for Kampala, I'll remove it from the table. Thank you. 71.46.83.66 (talk) 00:19, 3 March 2014 (UTC)


 * This comment is unclear about which section of the island you contest (i.e. where you would place the land bridge between Kampala and mainland Africa). I understand what you wrote as being about the Katonga river. Maybe you took your info from the River Katonga wiki page: that page claims that the Katonga is discontinuous. However, it does not provide any source to back that claim. It is quite easy on the contrary to find backing for the fact that the Katonga river does flow from lake Victoria to Lake George, see e.g. http://www.geography-site.co.uk/pages/countries/drainage/uganda_drainage.html http://www.visituganda.com/menu/category/what-to-see/lakes-and-rivers/katonga-river http://www.worldlibrary.org/articles/river_katonga ; also note that Henry Stanley did reach Lake George by following the Katonga from Lake Victoria. The remaining of the system is clear (water from Lake George and Lake victoria eventually meet at Lake Albert).


 * Your sources are all about the Bananal island only and none of them give any info about the Victoria-Katonga-Semliki system, so I assume that they simply disregarded it (as not being an island formed by a single river). I will therefore put the island back in the table. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jérôme Pouet (talk • contribs) 12:44, 31 October 2016 (UTC)

I'm so sorry to remove what you have editted.Though I didn't find anything about area around Kampala，I don't think that that is an island. For example，in Estern China，Yellow Sea,Yellow River，Yangtze River，together with Huai River，which flows into Yangtze River and also accepts a little part a stream flowing from the Yellow River，and they are all continous.So the whole Eastern China ，between these rivers and the sea，can be think as an island if we think like that.But in fact，during any periods of Chinese history，those areas have never been concerned as an island. So，I think that between what is called “island” and what is concerned to be not an island,what matters is really historical reasons besides geographic reasons.Since the define of island given by Wikipedia is vague,what is thought to be the standard for an island may be invaid for another.For example,since Marajo is an island，then why aren't areas surrounding by Mekong River or Niger River in their delta seen as an island?So that is the problem. So,I'm sorry but because it's not universually acknowledged by the public,I can only remove the content you've added.If you thinks that what I've written is wrong,you can add them up again. Frost-CHN (talk) 05:46, 2 December 2018 (UTC)
 * I don't see that the Yellow River flows into the Huai. On the other hand, and perhaps relevant to my question about Bartholomew Bayou (above) is that Two Ocean Creek splits, and flows into two different creeks,  which flow into two different oceans, bifurcating North America into two very comparable halves.  Perhaps it's reasonable to argue that an island must be surrounded by water at a single plane?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.58.185.240 (talk) 23:43, 25 March 2019 (UTC)

Inclusion of coastal islands in list
The article starts off by saying that semi-coastal rivers 'may be excluded', then we have a list that starts off with Marajó, and then meanders on (as it were) to include an unnamed island consisting of most of the Netherlands. Shouldn't the list at least include the bounding coast in these cases, to make the distinction less opaque? And by extension of these examples, doesn't almost the entire Ganges Delta end up being a still larger river/coastal island? 109.255.211.6 (talk) 01:34, 31 August 2020 (UTC)

Tiber Island
Seeking to add the obvious Tiber Island to the list, but I can't seem to find the area of the island in the WP article, it's sources, or anywhere online. I obviously see lots of measurements in terms of length and width, but that doesn't equate to the area. Maybe someone with a greater expertise in rivers can help here. --PerpetuityGrat (talk) 16:41, 22 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Same with Kneiphof island. --PerpetuityGrat (talk) 20:17, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

Definition
What is the definition of river island? Is it any exposed landmass surrounded by river water or is it any exposed landmass within a river? If it is the latter, then would the former still be called an island? If it is the former, I have a big problem understanding it. As we know, rivers generally have tributaries and rivers often flow into lakes too. Some large landmasses can be entirely separated from their mainland by natural rivers and lakes. For example, Northern Scotland, starting from the River Ness in Inverness to Loch Linnhe near Fort William, is completely separated from the rest of Scotland by a series of natural rivers and lakes/lochs.

Hong Kong's mainland (comprising the New Territories and Kowloon) is also completely separated from Mainland China by the Sham Chun River and the Sha Tau Kok River. The Korean Peninsula is almost completely separated from mainland Eurasia by the Yalu River and the Tumen River too (from Google Maps, it seems to me that both rivers originated from the Changbai Mountains, but they do not share the same source).

Does anyone consider Northern Scotland and Hong Kong's mainland to be islands or river islands? I don't.

By the way, for some reason, Marajó is considered the largest island in Brazil. I couldn't see any differences between this landmass and Northern Scotland or Hong Kong's mainland. River islands are so confusing. 2001:8003:908F:BB01:A0DD:B8A8:5775:1C65 (talk) 04:41, 27 March 2023 (UTC)