The Dive () is a river in the

Nouvelle-Aquitaine Nouvelle-Aquitaine (; oc, Nòva Aquitània or ; eu, Akitania Berria; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Novéle-Aguiéne'') is the largest administrative region in France, spanning the west and southwest of the mainland. The region was created by t ...

and

Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire (; ; br, Broioù al Liger) is one of the 18 regions of France, in the west of the mainland. It was created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful of "balancing metropolises" (). ...

regions in western France. It is a right-bank tributary of the

Thouet The Thouet () is a tributary of the Loire in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Pays de la Loire regions of western France. The Thouet rises at Secondigny, close to the source of the Sèvre Nantaise, and joins the Loire just to the west of Saumur. It is ...

. Its source is in the commune of Maisonneuve, Vienne. It later bisects the

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

Deux-Sèvres Deux-Sèvres () is a French department. ''Deux-Sèvres'' literally means "two Sèvres": the Sèvre Nantaise and the Sèvre Niortaise are two rivers which have their sources in the department. It had a population of 374,878 in 2019.

to reach

Maine-et-Loire Maine-et-Loire () is a department in the Loire Valley in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France. It is named after the two rivers, Maine and the Loire. It borders Mayenne and Sarthe to the north, Loire-Atlantique to the west, Indre-e ...

. It flows generally northwards and through the towns of Moncontour and

Brézé Brézé () is a former commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Bellevigne-les-Châteaux.Saint-Just-sur-Dive Saint-Just-sur-Dive (, literally ''Saint Just on Dive'') is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. It is around 50 km west of Tours, in the Loire–Anjou–Touraine regional nature park. See also * Thouet river * Comm ...

. In common with most rivers in this region of France flows are quite widely controlled by creation of heads of water, through embankment and barrages, which prevents near loss of upper reaches in summer. For winter sluices are opened, which prevents flooding, which historically would affect a small proportion of the land as the river gradient is relatively high and the valley modest but noticeable along most banks.

References

{{Authority control Rivers of France Rivers of Nouvelle-Aquitaine Rivers of Pays de la Loire Rivers of Vienne Rivers of Deux-Sèvres Rivers of Maine-et-Loire