Geography
Strasbourg is situated on the Ill River, where it flows into the Rhine on the border with Germany, across from the German town Kehl. The city is situated in the Upper Rhine Plain, approximately 20 km (12 mi) east of the Vosges Mountains and 25 km (16 mi) west of the Black Forest.
The location and the resulting poor natural ventilation makes Strasbourg one of the most atmospherically polluted cities of France, although the progressive disappearance of heavy industry on both banks of the Rhine, as well as effective measures of traffic regulation in and around the city are showing encouraging results. The Grand contournement ouest (GCO) project, nurtured since 1999, plans the construction of a 24 km (15 mi) long highway connection between the junctions of the A 4 and the A 35 autoroutes in the north and of the A4 and the A352 and A35 autoroutes in the south, meant to divest another significant portion of motorized traffic from the unité urbaine.
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