any good worldwide chart of river flow speeds?

Obviously, some of these will be changing seasonally and otherwise.

Just looking for basic typical speed ranges, hopefully with fast and slow seasons.

Like if someone was to design a barge to go a certain distance up the Rhine at its max flow, how much muscle do they need?

Shouldn't this be somewhere, sort of like tidal charts?

Yes, I know channel depths and their change is another whole subject and best get exact info from locals, etc.

Just wondering if the Rhine(for example) moves at 3mph or 15mph up to Worms (for example).

 

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt
http://gcmd.nasa.gov/KeywordSearch/...MetadataView=Full&MetadataType=0&lbnode=mdlb3

 

Tunnels has a grasp on flow dynamics, maybe he'll drop by . . .

 

Most likely you will get a range of speed. Rainfall and Spring thaw make a huge difference in the flow.

 

Local knowledge indispensable, talk to the local operators. May need to take a foreign language course though.