thumb|The Luapula River is the middle stretch in red.
thumb|260px|The Luapula (bottom) forms a swampy delta where it enters Lake Mweru (center, in black), as shown in this false-colour NASA satellite image. Blue lines mark the swamp and its islands (9, 10); a dotted line marks the river's floodplain (11). Red dots (1–8) are towns. See note for full legend.
The Luapula River is a north-flowing river of central Africa, within the Congo River watershed. It rises in the wetlands of Lake Bangweulu (Zambia), which are fed by the Chambeshi River. The Luapula flows west then north, marking the border between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo before emptying into Lake Mweru. The river gives its name to Zambia's Luapula Province.
Source and upper Luapula
The Luapula drains Lake Bangweulu and its swamps into which flows the Chambeshi River, the source of the Congo. There is no single clear channel connecting the two rivers and the lake, but a mass of shifting channels, lagoons and swamps, as the explorer David Livingstone found to his cost. (He died exploring the area, and one of his last acts was to question Chief Chitambo about the course of the Luapula.) The channel boldly marked as the 'Luapula' and confidently shown on many maps flowing south out of Lake Bangweulu at 11°25'S 29°49'E can be seen on satellite images such as Google Earth to actually peter out into green vegetation around 11°46'S 29°48'E.
Below the Bangweulu swamps and floodplain, the Luapula flows steadily in an arc south-west turning north-west then north, with some rapids and well-known set of cataracts, Mambilima Falls near the main road.
Valley
From the Chembe Bridge to Lake Mweru, the long Luapula Valley has a higher rural population than the plateau through which it cuts to a depth of up to . The river is known for this valley and for its long thin delta entering Lake Mweru, usually referred to as the Luapula Swamps. The well-populated part of the valley starts north from Mambilima Falls, and along the rest of its length is nicknamed 'Mwapoleni Road', after the Chibemba greeting called out as people pass each other.
Swamps
The swamps stretch along the last of the river before it reaches the lake, and for much of that, they are wide, covering an area of about . There are four inhabited islands in the DR Congo part of the delta, including the largest in the system, which is accessible overland during the dry season. Zambia has three inhabited islands in the delta including Chisenga Island. There are also many lagoons, the largest of which is Mofwe Lagoon on the Zambian side.
The first large town of the colonial era was the river port, Kasenga, in DR Congo, which grew prosperous in the 1930s from supplying fish to Elizabethville and other towns of the Katanga Copperbelt via the first motor road to reach the valley. Most of the fish was caught in Lake Mweru and brought by boat up the Luapula to Kasenga, where it was packed in ice produced in several plants. Although the fish catch has declined and most now travels on the better roads of Zambia, Kasenga remains the only port on the river.
River crossings
The first vehicle pontoon ferries were at Kasenga, Kapalala and Shiniama near Matanda. None remain, though a passenger ferry operates between Kasenga and Kashiba, Zambia. Around 1950 the Chembe Ferry on the Congo Pedicle road became the main vehicle crossing. The river there is wide but can flood to wide in a heavy rainy season. In 1983 the first bridge over the river was built, the long Luapula Bridge on the Samfya-Serenje Road. The bridge approaches include nearly of elevated causeway over wetlands and another of embankment over flood plain.