River Long Profile — free printable diagram

About this illustration

This educational illustration depicts how a river's gradient changes downstream, presented in three distinct cartoon-style scenes. The 'Upper Course' shows a steep mountain landscape with fast-flowing water, the 'Middle Course' features a moderate gradient with a gentler flow through rolling hills, and the 'Lower Course' illustrates a very gentle gradient with slow-moving water across a flat plain. Each section is clearly labelled with descriptive text about the gradient and flow. Below the river illustrations, a color-coded bar visually represents the gradient flattening from steep (orange/red) to gentle (green/yellow) as it moves downstream. This resource is ideal for teaching geography or Earth science concepts on a worksheet or slide presentation.

How to use

1. 1Right-click the image and choose “Save image as”, or use the download button.
2. 2Use it in your classroom worksheets, slides or printables — free under CC BY-NC 4.0.
3. 3Attribute as “Image by Kuraplan” or link back to kuraplan.com. Not for commercial resale.