Drava


The Drava or Drave, historically known as the Dravis or Dravus, is a river in southern Central Europe. With a length of , or , if the length of its Sextner Bach source is added, it is the fifth or sixth longest tributary of the Danube, after the Tisza, Sava, Prut, Mureș and likely Siret. The Drava drains an area of about 40,154 square kilometers. Its mean annual discharge is seasonally to per second. Its source is near the market town of Innichen, in the Puster Valley of South Tyrol, Italy. The river flows eastwards through East Tyrol and Carinthia in Austria into the Styria region of Slovenia. It then turns southeast, passing through northern Croatia and, after merging with its main tributary the Mur, forms most of the border between Croatia and Hungary, before it joins the Danube near Osijek, in Croatia.

Name

In ancient times the river was known as Dravus or Draus in Latin, and in Greek as Δράος and Δράβος. Medieval attestations of the name include Dravis, Drauva, Drauus, Trauum, and Trah. The name is pre-Roman and pre-Celtic, but probably of Indo-European origin, from the root *dreu̯- 'flow'. The river gives its name to the dravite species of tourmaline.

Carpis

The Carpis was a river which, according to Herodotus, flowed from the upper country of the Ombricans northward into the Ister, whence it has been supposed that this river is the same as the Dravus.

Geography

The Drava and the Spöl are the only two rivers originating in Italy that belong to the Danube drainage basin. Its main left tributaries are the Isel, the Möll, the , the Gurk and the Lavant in Austria, and the Mur near Legrad at the Croatian–Hungarian border. Its main right tributaries are the Gail in Austria, the Meža and Dravinja in Slovenia, and the Bednja in Croatia.
CountryLength Catchment area Mean flow
Italy10.6354 4
Austria254.722162 280
Austria–Slovenia4.2border
Slovenia117.74662 292
Slovenia–Croatia23.3border
Croatia166.46822 544
Croatia–Hungary133.0border
Hungary06154 544
Total709.840154 544

Mean discharge is for the last station in the country mentioned in the source.

Course

The sources of the Drava are located at the drainage divide between the market town of Innichen/San Candido and neighbouring Toblach/Dobbiaco in the west, where the Rienz River rises, a tributary of the Adige/Etsch. At Innichen itself the 16+ km , originating near the Sextener Rotwand, joins the ~2 km long source creek. The river than flows eastwards and after 8 kilometres crosses into East Tyrol in Austria. At Lienz it flows into the Isel, sourced from the glaciers of the Venediger and Glockner Groups. The Isel is almost three times larger than the Drava where they meet and, starting from the source of its tributary under the Rötspitze, the Isel is also longer than the combined Drava and Sextner Bach to that point.
The river then flows east into Carinthia at Oberdrauburg. The river separates the Kreuzeck range of the High Tauern in the north and the Gailtal Alps in the south, passes the Sachsenburg narrows and the site of the ancient city of Teurnia, before it reaches the town of Spittal an der Drau. Downstream of Villach, it runs along the northern slopes of the Karawanks to Ferlach and Lavamünd.
The Drava passes into Slovenia at Gorče near Dravograd, from where it runs for via Vuzenica, Muta, Ruše, and Maribor to Ptuj and the border with Croatia at Ormož.
The river then passes north of Varaždin, after which it receives the Plitvica and Bednja from the right, and then Mura at the border with Hungary. It continues as a largely border river towards the southeast, receiving and from the right. It passes the city of Barcs in Hungary from the south. It starts to be navigable, for about in Croatia, from the confluence of the Čađavica to its mouth. It passes Belišće from the north, receives the Karašica from the right, and then passes the city of Osijek from the north. Afterwards, it enters the Kopački Rit wetland and merges into the Danube from its right.
The hydrological parameters of Drava are regularly monitored in Croatia at Botovo, Terezino Polje, Donji Miholjac and Osijek.

Discharge

The Drava's mean annual discharge at Drávaszabolcs. Period from 1995 to 2023.
YearQ
YearQ
19954792010633.4
19965982011442.4
19974372012528.3
19985132013638.5
19995882014714.9
20005492015459.2
20014642016269.7
2002410.62017359.7
2003348.82018446.4
2004501.62019259.8
2005474.12020535.5
2006326.72021478.4
20073382022319.1
2008483.52023636
2009627.92024

Hydroelectric power plants

Currently, there are 22 hydroelectric power plants on the Drava. The power plants are listed beginning at the headwaters:
DamNameplate capacity Annual generation
Amlach power station60219
Paternion2495
Kellerberg2596
Villach25100
Rosegg-St. Jakob80338
Feistritz-Ludmannsdorf88354
Ferlach-Maria Rain75318
Annabrücke90390
Edling87407
Schwabeck79378
Lavamünd28156
Dravograd26.2142
Vuzenica55.6247
Vuhred72.3297
Ožbalt73.2305
Fala58260
Mariborski Otok60270
Zlatoličje126577
Formin116548
Varaždin86476
Čakovec75.9400
Dubrava84

The Drava is one of the most exploited rivers in the world in terms of hydropower, with almost 100% of its water potential energy being exploited. As the region of the river is a place of exceptional biodiversity, this raises several ecological concerns, together with other forms of exploitation such as use of river deposits.