Drau
Drau is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index, part of the Drava system. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- System
- Drava
- Coordinates
- 46.63°, 14.55°
About Drau
The Drava or Drave (German: Drau, pronounced [ˈdʁaʊ] ; Slovene: Drava [ˈdɾàːʋa]; Croatian: Drava [drǎːʋa]; Hungarian: Dráva [ˈdraːvɒ]; Italian: Drava [ˈdraːva]), historically known as the Dravis or Dravus, is a river in southern Central Europe. With a length of 710km (441 miles), or 724km (450 miles), 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 (15,504 sq. mi.). Its mean annual discharge is seasonally 500m³ (650 cu. yd.) per second to 670m³ (880 cu. yd.) per second. Its source is near the market town of Innichen, in the Puster Valley of South Tyrol, Italy. The river flows eastward 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.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Drava (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Drau in Depth
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 (10 mile) Sextner Bach, originating near the Sextener Rotwand, joins the ~2 km (1¼ mile) long source creek. The river then flows eastwards and after 8 kilometres (5 miles) crosses into East Tyrol in Austria. At Lienz it flows into the Isel, sourced from the glaciers of the Venediger and Glockner Groups.
Geography
The Drava (along with one of its tributaries, the Slizza) and the Spöl are the only two rivers originating in Italy that belong to the Danube drainage basin. Its main left tributaries (from the north) are the Isel (contributes 39 m3/s), the Möll (25 m3/s), the Lieser (22 m3/s), the Gurk (30 m3/s) and the Lavant (12 m3/s) in Austria, and the Mur (166 m3/s) near Legrad at the Croatian–Hungarian border. Its main right tributaries (from the south) are the Gail (45 m3/s) in Austria, the Meža (12 m3/s) and Dravinja (11 m3/s) in Slovenia, and the Bednja (? m3/s) in Croatia.
Mean discharge is for the last station in the country mentioned in the source.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Drava (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Drau: Key Facts
| Length | 720 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 620 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 40,400 km² |
| Source | Innichen |
| Mouth | Danube |
| Drainage system | Danube basin |
| Tributaries | Isel, Möll, Lieser, Lavant, Mur, Gail, Vellach |
Facts from Wikidata Q171009 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Drau: Quick Answers
- Where is Drau?
- Drau is located in Austria and Slovenia and Croatia, at 46.6286° N, 14.5514° E.
- Are there dams on the Drau?
- No dam on the Drau is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.
- Which river system is the Drau part of?
- The Drau is part of the Drava system.