Japan - April 28th, 2010
The Chikugo River is a river that flows through Kumamoto, Ōita, Fukuoka and Saga prefectures in Japan. With a total length of 143 kilometers, it is the longest river of Kyūshū island. It rises under the Mount Aso, and discharges into Ariake Sea, in the lower right quadrant of this orthorectified image.
The upper reaches of the river are important to forestry, and the middle and lower reaches are important to local agriculture, providing irrigation to some 400 km² of rice fields on the Tsukushi Plain. The river is also important to industry, with twenty electrical power plants are located along the banks of the Chikugo River, as well as the major city of Kurume in Fukuoka prefecture.
