Sava

Course

The Sava spans Central-Southeast Europe, flowing through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and along the Bosnia-Herzegovina border. Its total length is 990 kilometres (615 miles), including the 45-kilometre (28 mi) Sava Dolinka and the 945-kilometre (587 mi) Sava proper. As a right tributary of the Danube, the river belongs to the Black Sea drainage basin. When the Sava Dolinka headwater is excluded from its course, the Sava River is the third longest tributary of the Danube, slightly shorter than the 966-kilometre (600 mi) Tisza and the 950-kilometre (590 mi) Prut—the Danube's two longest tributaries. It is also the largest tributary of the Danube by discharge. The river's course is sometimes used to describe the northern boundary of the Balkans, and the southern border of the Central Europe.

Geology

The course of the Sava River runs through several diverse geological units and orographic regions. The uppermost course of the river and its headwaters in the Karawanks area, is in the Southern Alps, tracing the Sava Fault—itself running parallel to the Periadriatic Seam. Mesozoic and Upper Triassic rocks are exposed in the region. The Ljubljana Basin represents the boundary of the Southern Alps and the Dinarides. Valleys of the Sava Dolinka and the Sava Bohinjka are glacial valleys, carved out by the Sava Dolinka and Bohinj glaciers advancing down Karawanks range to vicinity of present-day Radovljica. In the late Pleistocene, Bohinj Glacier was the largest glacier in the territory of present-day Slovenia, up to 900 metres (3,000 feet) thick.

Economy

There are 18 hydroelectric power plants with power generation capacity exceeding 10 Megawatts in the Sava River basin. In Slovenia, most of them harness the Sava itself. In other countries, the hydroelectric power plants are on its tributaries. Total power generation capacity of the 18 power plants, and additional smaller plants largely found in Slovenia, amounts to 41542 megawatts, and their annual production capacity stands at 2,497 gigawatt-hours. Approximately 3.3 cubic kilometres (0.79 cubic miles) of water per year in the river's basin is used to cool thermoelectric and nuclear power plants. Power plant cooling represents the main type of use of the Sava River waters.

As of October 2012, there are six existing hydroelectric power plants built along the Sava River.