Editing IJssel (section)

=== The IJssel as a Rhine distributary ===
[[File:20150909 IJsselbrug Zwolle.jpg|thumb|Bridge over the IJssel at [[Zwolle]]]][[File:2020-01 Rijnhert IJsseloord 2 bij Arnhem 04.jpg|thumb|At IJsseloord (close to Arnhem) the IJssel parts from the Rhine. This statue 'Het Rijnhert' on a hill close to the highway is a symbol for the connection of the city to the nearby national park, the Hoge Veluwe.]]
Since the connection between the Rhine and IJssel was dug, the Rhine became the main contributor to the flow of the IJssel &ndash; a small fraction of the former's flow makes up the upper IJssel. Various tributaries add a little or much water to the flow of the IJssel, such as the [[Berkel]] and [[Schipbeek]] streams from relatively local [[precipitation]]. The IJssel, if accepted as a branch of the [[Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta]], is the only one that takes up tributary rivers rather than giving rise to distributaries. It has no contact with the Meuse, nor Scheldt, nor their resultant watercourses.

In the last few miles of the river's run, near the city of [[Kampen (Overijssel)|Kampen]], distributaries form, resulting in a quite small [[delta (geography)|delta]]. Some of these have been dammed up to lower the risk of [[flood]]ing. Some have silted up. Others flow without interruption. Most of the damming-up was done before 1932, when the Zuiderzee was turned into the freshwater [[IJsselmeer]] lake. The whole delta had been prone to flooding in times of northwestern [[gale]]s, pushing back the saline Zuiderzee water into the delta.

The modern-day names of the delta branches are, west to east, the:
*Keteldiep
*Kattendiep
*Noorddiep (local drainage ditch only)
*Ganzendiep
*Goot

Of these, the first-stated two are the main navigations. The Noorddiep has been stopped up at both ends. Another branch, De Garste, had already completely silted up by the middle of the nineteenth century.<ref name="histo">{{cite book |last=Grote |title=Grote historische atlas van Nederland (3): Oost-Nederland 1830–1855 |year=1990 |publisher=Wolters-Noordhoff Atlasprodukties |location=[[Groningen (city)|Groningen]] |language=nl |isbn=90-01-96232-7}}</ref> Until about 1900, the Ganzendiep up to the Goot fork was known as IJssel proper<ref name="histo" /> as was the historical main channel. The present main channel was named the Regtediep or Rechterdiep until well into the twentieth century.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Kwast |editor-first=B.|title=Schoolatlas der geheele aarde |year=1932 |publisher=Wolters |location=Groningen|language=nl }}</ref>

The IJssel, now mainly a Rhine branch as to its water, has retained most of the character of a distinct river in its own right. It has its own tributaries and, as to the Old IJssel (''Oude IJssel''), a former [[headstream]].