Danube

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Danube
Donau, Dunaj, Duna, Дунав/Dunav, Dunărea, Дунáй (Dunay)
The Iron Gate, on the Romanian–Serbian border (Iron Gate natural park and Đerdap national park)
The Iron Gate, on the Romanian–Serbian border (Iron Gate natural park and Đerdap national park)
Countries Flag of Germany Germany, Flag of Austria Austria, Flag of Slovakia Slovakia, Flag of Hungary Hungary, Flag of Croatia Croatia, Flag of Serbia Serbia, Flag of Romania Romania, Flag of Bulgaria Bulgaria, Flag of Moldova Moldova, Flag of Ukraine Ukraine
Cities Ulm, Regensburg, Passau, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Novi Sad, Belgrade, Brăila, Galaţi
Primary source Brigach
 - location St. Georgen, Black Forest, Germany
 - elevation 925 meters (3,035 feet)
 - length 43 km (27 miles)
 - coordinates 48°06′25″N 08°16′57″E / 48.10694, 8.2825
Secondary source Breg
 - location Black Forest, Germany
 - elevation 1,078 meters (3,537 feet)
 - length 49 km (30 miles)
Source confluence
 - location Donaueschingen
Mouth Danube Delta
Length 2,860 km (1,777 miles)
Basin 817,000 km² (315,445 miles²)
Discharge for before delta
 - average 6,500 meters³/sec. (229,545 feet³/sec.)
 - Passau 580 meters³/sec. (20,483 feet³/sec.) 30 km before town
 - Vienna 1,900 meters³/sec. (67,098 feet³/sec.)
 - Budapest 2,350 meters³/sec. (82,989 feet³/sec.)
 - Belgrade 4,000 meters³/sec. (141,259 feet³/sec.)
Danube River
Danube River

The Danube (In German: Donau from earlier Danuvius, Celtic *dānu, meaning "to flow, run," and Slovak Dunaj, Hungarian Duna, Romanian Dunăre, Old Norse Duná, Turkish Tuna, ancient Greek Istros, Serbo-Croatian Dunav/Дунав, Bulgarian and Macedonian Дунав) is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg rivers which join at the eponymously named German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance of some 2850 km (1771 miles), passing through several Central and Eastern European capitals, before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and Ukraine.

Known to history as one of the long-standing frontiers of the Roman Empire, the river flows through—or forms a part of the borders of—ten countries: Germany (7.5%), Austria (10.3%), Slovakia (5.8%), Hungary (11.7%), Croatia (4.5%), Serbia (10.3%), Romania (28.9%), Bulgaria (5.2%), Moldova (1.7%), and Ukraine (3.8%)

In addition, the drainage basin includes parts of nine more countries: Italy (0.15%), Poland (0.09%), Switzerland (0.32%), Czech Republic (2.6%), Slovenia (2.2%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (4.8%), Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, and Albania (0.03%).


Geography

Brigach (right) and Breg (left) forming the Danube at Donaueschingen
The Danube Bend is a curve of the Danube in Hungary, near the city of Visegrád. The Transdanubian Medium Mountains lie on the left bank, while the Northern Medium Mountains on the right.

The Danube is Europe's second-longest river. It originates in the Black Forest in Germany as two smaller rivers—the Brigach and the Breg—which join at Donaueschingen, and it is from here that it is known as the Danube. It flows generally eastward for a distance of some 1771 miles (2850 km), passing through several Central and Eastern European capitals, before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania.

The Danube flows through—or forms a part of the borders of—ten countries: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine. In addition, the drainage basin includes parts of eleven more countries: Poland, Switzerland, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, and Albania.

Some Danubian tributaries are important rivers in their own right, navigable by barges and river boats of shallow draught. Ordered from source to mouth, the main tributaries are:

Iller - Lech - Regen (entering at Regensburg) - Isar (entering just beyond Deggendorf) - Inn (entering at Passau) - Enns - Morava (entering near Devín Castle) - Leitha - Váh (entering at Komárno) - Hron - Ipel - Sió - Dráva - Vuka - Tisza - Sava (entering at Belgrade) - Timiş - Velika Morava - Caraş - Jiu - Iskar - Olt - Vedea - Argeş - Ialomiţa - Siret - Prut

Sectioning

  • Upper Section: From spring to Devín Gate. Danube remains a characteristic mountain river until Passau, with average bottom gradient 0.0012 percent, from Passau to Devín Gate the gradient lessens to 0.0006%.
  • Middle Section: From Devín Gate to Iron Gate. The riverbed widens and the average bottom gradient becomes only 0.00006 percent.
  • Lower Section: From Iron Gate to Sulina, with average gradient as little as 0.00003 percent.

The Danube delta

The Danube Delta is the second largest delta in Europe, after the Volga Delta, and the best preserved on the continent [1]. The greater part of the Delta lies in Romania (Tulcea county), while its northern part, on the left bank of the Chilia arm, is situated in Ukraine (Odessa Oblast). The approximate surface is 4152 km², of which 3446 km² are in Romania. If the lagoons of Razim-Sinoe (1015 km² of which 863km² water surface; situated in the south, but attached to the Danube Delta from geological and ecological perspectives, as well as being the combined territory of the World Heritage Site) are to be added, the considered area of the Danube Delta grows to 5165 km².

The Danube Delta has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991. Its wetlands (on the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance) support vast flocks of migratory birds, including 70 percent of the world's white pelicans and 50 percent of pygmy cormorants.

National Parks

National parks along the Danube's shores include:

  • Naturpark Obere Donau (Germany)
  • Nature protection area Donauleiten (Germany)
  • Nationalpark Donau Auen (Austria)
  • Nationalpark Duna-Ipoly Nemzeti Park (Hungary)
  • Naturalpark Kopački Rit (Croatia)
  • Đerdap National park (Serbia)
  • Iron Gate natural park (Romania)
  • Biosphere reserve Danube Delta (Romania)

Geology

Đerdap gorge, Serbia, overlooking Romania

Although the headwaters of the Danube are relatively small today, geologically, the Danube is much older than the Rhine, with which its catchment area competes in today's southern Germany. This has a few interesting geological complications. Since the Rhine is the only river rising in the Alps mountains which flows north towards the North Sea, an invisible line divides large parts of southern Germany, which is sometimes referred to as the European Watershed.

However, before the last ice age in the Pleistocene, the Rhine started at the southwestern tip of the Black Forest, while the waters from the Alps that today feed the Rhine were carried east by the so-called Urdonau (original Danube). Parts of this ancient river's bed, which was much larger than today's Danube, can still be seen in (now waterless) canyons in today's landscape of the Swabian Alb. After the Upper Rhine Valley had been eroded, most waters from the Alps changed their direction and began feeding the Rhine. Today's upper Danube is but a meek reflection of the ancient one.

Since the Swabian Alb is largely shaped of porous limestone, and since the Rhine's level is much lower than the Danube's, today subsurface rivers carry much water from the Danube to the Rhine. On many days in the summer, when the Danube carries little water, it completely oozes away noisily into these underground channels at two locations in the Swabian Alp, which are referred to as the Donauversickerung (Danube Sink). Most of this water resurfaces only 12 km south at the Aachtopf, Germany's wellspring with the highest flow, an average of 8500 liters per second, north of Lake Constance—thus feeding the Rhine. The European Water Divide thus in fact only applies for those waters that pass beyond this point, and only during the days of the year when the Danube carries enough water to survive the sink holes in the Donauversickerung.

Since this enormous amount of underground water erodes much of its surrounding limestone, it is estimated that the Danube upper course will one day disappear entirely in favor of the Rhine, an event called stream capturing.

Human history

Danube in Ulm, where it separates Ulm in Baden-Württemberg and Neu-Ulm in Bavaria
At Esztergom and Štúrovo, the Danube separates Hungary from Slovakia
River Danube in Vienna
File:Danube at belene.JPG
The Danube between Belene and Belene Island, Bulgaria
A look upstream from the Donauinsel in Vienna, Austria during an unusually cold winter (February 2006). A frozen Danube is a phenomenon experienced once or twice in a lifetime. (Details)
Bratislava doesn't usually experience major floods, but the Danube sometimes overflows its right bank.

The Danube basin was the site of some of the earliest human cultures. the Danubian Neolithic cultures include the Linear Pottery cultures of the mid-Danube basin. The third millennium B.C.E. Vučedol culture (from the Vučedol site near Vukovar, Croatia) is famous for its ceramics. Many sites of the sixth-to-third millennium B.C.E. Vinča culture are sited along the Danube. The river was part of the Roman empire's Limes Germanicus.

Of importance for the Danube is also the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR). The ICPDR is an international organization consisting of 13 member states (Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine) and the European Union. ICPDR, established in 1998, deals not only with the Danube itself, but with the whole Danube River Basin, which also includes its tributaries and the groundwater resources. The goal of the ICPDR is to implement the Danube River Protection Convention, promoting and coordinating sustainable and equitable water management, including conservation, improvement and rational use of waters for the benefit of the Danube River Basin countries and their people.The Romans often used the river Danube as a border for its vast empire.

The Donauradweg or the Danube Bike Path

The Danube Bike Trail (also called Danube Cycle Path or the "Donauradweg") is said to be Europe's best known and most loved bike trip, particularly Part II which begins in Passau, Germany near the Austrian border, and continues for 300 kilometers to Vienna. On this section there are paved paths for all but 100 meters on either the north or south banks with bridges and ferries linking the two banks. The trail is typically traveled from west to east as it is downhill and the winds are typically from the west. All along the way there are delightful small towns, placid scenery, castles on the hills, monasteries, and excursions into woods and farm country. The most scenic areas are on the north or "left" bank in the Wachau wine valley, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Danube Bike Trail (Donauradweg) is divided into four sections:
1 Donauschlingen-Passau (550 km)
2 Passau-Wien (320 km)
3 Wien-Budapest (330 km)
4 Budapest-Black Sea

Economics of the Danube

Drinking water

Along its path, the Danube is a source of drinking water for about ten million people. In Baden-Württemberg, Germany, almost thirty percent (as of 2004) of the water for the area between Stuttgart, Bad Mergentheim, Aalen and Alb-Donau (district) comes from purified water of the Danube. Other cities like Ulm and Passau also use some water from the Danube.

In Austria and Hungary, most water comes from ground and spring sources, and only in rare cases is water from the Danube used. Most states also find it too difficult to clean the water because of extensive pollution; only parts of Romania where the water is cleaner still use a lot of drinking water from the Danube.

Navigation and transport

As "Corridor VII" of the European Union, the Danube is an important transport route. Since the opening of the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, the river connects the Black Sea with the industrial centers of Western Europe and with the Port of Rotterdam. The waterway is designed for large scale inland vessels (110×11.45 m) but it can carry much larger vessels on most of its course. The Danube has been partly canalized in Germany (5 locks) and Austria (10 locks). Further proposals to build a number of new locks in order to improve navigation have not progressed, due in part to environmental concerns.

Downstream from the Freudenau river plant's locks in Vienna, canalization of the Danube was limited to the Gabčíkovo dam and locks near Bratislava and the two double Iron Gate locks in the border stretch of the Danube between Serbia and Romania. These locks have larger dimensions (similar to the locks in the Russian Volga river, some 300 by over 30 m). Downstream of the Iron Gate, the river is free flowing all the way to the Black Sea, a distance of more than 860 kilometers.

The Danube connects with the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal at Kelheim, and with the Wiener Donaukanal in Vienna. Apart from a couple of secondary navigable branches, the only major navigable rivers linked to the Danube are the Drava, Sava and Tisza. In Serbia, a canal network also connects to the river; the network, known as the Dunav-Tisa-Dunav canals, links sections downstream.

Modern navigation

The Danube in Budapest

The Danube is navigable by ocean ships from the Black Sea to Brăila in Romania and by river ships to Kelheim, Bavaria; smaller craft can navigate further upstream to Ulm, in Germany. About 60 of its tributaries are also navigable.

Since the completion of the German Rhine–Main–Danube Canal in 1992, the river has been part of a trans-European waterway from Rotterdam on the North Sea to Sulina on the Black Sea (3500 km). In 1994 the Danube was declared one of ten Pan-European transport corridors, routes in Central and Eastern Europe that required major investment over the following ten to fifteen years. The amount of goods transported on the Danube increased to about 100 million tons in 1987. In 1999, transport on the river was made difficult by the NATO bombing of three bridges in Serbia. The clearance of the debris was finished in 2002. The temporary pontoon bridge that hampered navigation was finally removed in 2005.

At the Iron Gate, the Danube flows through a gorge that forms part of the boundary between Serbia and Romania; it contains the hydroelectric Iron Gate I dam, followed at about 60 km downstream (outside the gorge) by the Iron Gate ll dam. On 2006-04-13, a record peak discharge at Iron Gate Dam reached 15,400 m³/s.

There are three artificial waterways built on the Danube: the Danube–Tisa–Danube Canal (DTD) in the Banat and Bačka regions (Vojvodina, northern province of Serbia); the 64 km Danube–Black Sea Canal, between Cernavodă and Constanţa (Romania) finished in 1984, shortens the distance to the Black Sea by 400 km; the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal (about 171 km), finished in 1992, linking the North Sea to the Black Sea.

Fishing

The importance of fishing on the Danube, which used to be critical in the Middle Ages, has declined dramatically. Some fishermen are still active at certain points on the river, and the Danube Delta still has an important industry.

Important tourist and natural spots along the Danube, including the Wachau valley, the Nationalpark Donau-Auen in Austria, the Naturpark Obere Donau in Germany, Kopački rit in Croatia, Iron Gate and Danube Delta in Romania.


Notes

  1. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Danube Delta Retrieved May 21, 2008.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Magris, Claudio. 1999. Danube: a sentimental journey from the source to the Black Sea. London: Harvill Press. ISBN 1860466338 and ISBN 9781860466335
  • Fermor, Patrick Leigh. 1986. Between the woods and the water: on foot to Constantinople from the Hook of Holland : the middle Danube to the Iron Gates. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Viking. ISBN 0670811491 and ISBN 9780670811496
  • Paton, A. A. 1861. Researches on the Danube and the Adriatic; or contributions to the modern history of Hungary and Transylvania, Dalmatia and Croatia, Servia and Bulgaria I. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus.

External links

All links Retrieved May 11, 2008.

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