page_title: Geography of Sussex
section_title: Rivers
hierarchical_section_title: Geography of Sussex / Physical geography / Rivers
caption_attribution_description: Bewl Water Reservoir, Kent
context_page_description: Sussex is a historic county and cultural region in the south of England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, north-east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West Sussex and East Sussex and the city of Brighton and Hove. The city of Brighton & Hove was created a unitary authority in 1997, and was granted City status in 2000. Until then Chichester had been Sussex's only city. By convention, Chichester is Sussex's capital city and Lewes is Sussex's county town.
  Sussex encompasses approximately 3,783 square kilometres. It is 120 km long and is between 35 km and 40 km wide. For comparison, Sussex is slightly larger than the English county of Cornwall or 50 per cent larger than Luxembourg. Sussex has a population of about 1.6 million, about the same as the US state of Idaho and about three times the population of Cornwall.
  Sussex has three main geographic sub-regions, each orientated approximately east to west. In the south-west of the county lies the fertile and densely populated coastal plain.
context_section_description: Sussex has rivers that flow into both the English Channel and the Thames Estuary of the North Sea.  Flowing to the English Channel are the Arun, Adur, Ouse, Cuckmere and Rother.  Flowing to the Thames Estuary and the North Sea are the Mole and Medway. At 113 kilometres (70 mi) long, the River Medway is the longest river flowing through Sussex.  The longest river entirely in Sussex is the River Arun, which is 60 kilometres (37 mi) long.
  The rivers wholly within the county are relatively short. All Sussex's rivers rise in the Weald, with the Arun, the western branch of the Adur, the Mole and the Ouse all rising in the area of St Leonard's Forest.  Most of the county's rivers flow either southwards or northwards.  Exceptions are the western River Rother and the eastern River Rother which each flow in an easterly direction.  Many of the county's rivers are supplemented by winterbournes which in particular rise in the chalk of the South Downs.  Some of the rivers flowing to the English Channel use gaps in the South Downs to do so. The mouths of all have been affected by longshore drift, particularly during violent storms during the Middle Ages.
  Rivers flowing southwards towards the English Channel from west to east are:
  Ems  - a small river which forms part of Sussex's western boundary with Hampshire
  Lavant - called a river but really a winterbourne, flowing from East Dean to Chichester Harbour
  Arun, and its tributary the western River Rother: source of Arun near Horsham; entering the sea at Littlehampton
  Adur: source near Cuckfield; mouth near Shoreham-by-Sea
  Ouse: source near Lower Beeding; mouth at Newhaven
  Cuckmere: rising near Heathfield; mouth Cuckmere Haven between Eastbourne and Seaford
  Eastern River Rother and its many tributaries including the Rivers Brede and Tillingham; source, Rotherfield in the High Weald and enters the sea at Rye Bay. A section known as the Kent Ditch forms part of Sussex's eastern boundary with Kent.
caption: Bewl Water on the Sussex-Kent border is the largest body of water in south-east England
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