The Rhine is one of the major European rivers. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein, Swiss-Austrian, and Swiss-German borders. After that the Rhine defines much of the Franco-German border, after which it flows in a mostly northerly direction through the German Rhineland. Finally in Germany the Rhine turns into a predominantly westerly direction and flows into the Netherlands where it eventually empties into the North Sea. It drains an area of 9,973 sq km and its name derives from the Celtic Rēnos. There are also two German states named after the river, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. Current calculations of the CHR and EUWID attest massive decrease or even drying out of the river within the next 30–80 years caused by the climate crisis. It is the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe (after the Danube), at about , with an average discharge of about . The Rhine and the Danube comprised much of the Roman Empire's northern inland boundary, and the Rhine has been a vital navigable waterway bringing trade and goods deep inland since those days. The various castles and defenses built along it attest to its prominence as a waterway in the Holy Roman Empire. Among the largest and most important cities on the Rhine are Cologne, Rotterdam, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Strasbourg, Arnhem, and Basel. Name The variants of the name of the Rhine (Latin Rhenus; French Rhin, Italian Reno, Romansh Rain or Rein? /i, Dutch Rijn, Alemannic Ry, Ripuarian Rhing) in modern languages are all derived from the Gaulish name , which was adapted in Roman-era geography (1st century BC) as Greek (), Latin . The spelling with Rh- in English Rhine as well as in German and French is due to the influence of Greek orthography, while the vocalization -i- is due to the Proto-Germanic adoption of the Gaulish name as *Rīnaz, via Old Frankish giving Old English , Old High German , early Middle Dutch (c. 1200) (then also spelled or ). The modern German diphthong (also used in Romansh) is a Central German development of the early modern period, with the Alemannic name keeping the older vocalism. In Alemannic, the deletion of the ending -n in pausa is a recent development; the form is largely preserved in Lucernese dialects. in Ripuarian is diphthongized, as is in Palatine. While Spanish has