For much of its course of 130 km it forms the administrative boundary between Catalonia and Aragon. Its source is in the municipality of Vielha e Mijaran (Aran Valley) at an elevation of about 2400 m, and its upper valley forms the main access route to the Aran Valley (N-230 road and the Vielha tunnel (5230 m long) under the watershed). It passes through the traditional county of Ribagorza and the town of Pont de Suert (Alta Ribagorça). Dams form two large reservoirs, the Escales below Pont de Suert and the Canelles above Ivars de Noguera (Noguera). The Noguera Ribagorzana joins the Segre from the right at Vilanova de la Barca (Segrià). It drains a basin of 2036 km2.
Construction of the hydroelectric power plant of Ribagorzana, 1955 (Archivio storico Touring Club Italiano)
^Dorothy Noyes Fire in the Placa: Catalan Festival Politics After Franco 2003 p. ix "Catalonia proper — a triangle with the Pyrenees as one side, the Mediterranean as another, the Noguera Ribagorçana and Ebre rivers approximately marking the third, and Barcelona, the capital, in the middle — is now an autonomous region "