A river at the heart of Europe, the Rhine has a length of 1320 km and a catchment area of 185,000 km². The population density and the degree of urbanisation and industrialisation in its basin have presented a particular water management and river development challenges in the past and will continue to do so in the future. In this book section, the development of the Rhine regime is sketched, focussing on the changing water management challenges and purposes, contracting parties, modes of co-operation, and experience in implementing the various agreements.

It has been published in the proceedings of the Conference "Implementing Transboundary River Conventions" that was organised by the Luso – American Foundation and took place on 8-9 March 2001 in Porto, Portugal. The chapter is available via the Springer Verlag website.