engleski

The Danube River Basin

The Danube is the European river par excellence, a river that most effectively defines and integrates Europe. It links more countries than any other river in the world. The Danube River Basin (DRB) collects waters from the territories of 19 nations and it forms the international boundaries for eight of these (Fig. 3.1). The river’s largely eastward course has served as a corridor for both migration and trade, and a boundary strongly guarded for thousands of years. The river’s name changes from west to east from Donau, Dunaj, Duna, Dunav, to Dunarea, respectively. The names of the river (not only Danube but also the names of the rivers Don, Dnjeper, and Dnjester) most likely originate from the Persian or Celtic word Danu, which literally means flowing. It also may stem from the Celtic “Don, Na, ”or “two rivers” because the Celts could not agree on the source of the Danube (Wohl, 2010). In this chapter, we provide an overview of the DRB, including the three main sections (Upper, Middle, and Lower Danube), the delta, and 10 major tributaries (Figs. 3.1 and 3.2, Table 3.1 ; the Iskar River is not discussed in detail in the text). This chapter builds upon several textbooks on the Danube, including Liepolt (1967) and Kinzelbach (1994), and, among many other sources, on information derived from the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR).

Danube ; Europe ; Drava River ; floodplains

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