Étang de Vaccarès

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Étang de Vaccarès resembles a 750 km² island within the mainland, embraced by the two branches of the Rhône River and the Mediterranean Sea. A smaller area, west of the Petit Rhone branch of the river, is called the Petite Camargue.

Until the end of the 19th century, the successive sedimentations brought by the flux and reflux of both the Rhone and the Sea made the delta very fluctuating. In 1859, a construction of a sea dike (presently about 20 km long) limited the influx of tide water. Then the Rhone was embanked to limit the flooding of farmland (these were mostly irrigated vineyards; since WWII, Camargue rice has been cultivated and is a well identified, widely sold product).

Both for farming purposes and to preserve the rich wildlife, the present day shape of the delta depends upon a strict management of water resources, through pumping, irrigation and draining stations making a complex network of channels throughout the river delta.

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