Drava or Drave Drau, Dráva
The Drava in Osijek, Croatia
Map of the Drava [1]
Location
Countries	Italy Austria Slovenia Croatia Hungary
Cities	Lienz Spittal an der Drau Villach Ferlach Dravograd Vuzenica Muta Ruše Maribor Ptuj Ormož Varaždin Barcs Belišće Osijek
Physical characteristics
Source	North of the Neunerkofel/Cima Nove over the Toblacher Feld/Sella di Dobbiaco
• location	Toblach/Dobbiaco, South Tyrol/Alto Adige, Italy
• coordinates	46°43′9″N 12°15′16″E / 46.71917°N 12.25444°E / 46.71917; 12.25444
• elevation	1450 m (4760 ft)
Mouth	Danube near Osijek
• location	Croatia
• coordinates	45°32′38″N 18°55′31″E / 45.54389°N 18.92528°E / 45.54389; 18.92528
Length	709.8 km (441.0 mi)[1]
Basin size	40154 km2 (15504 sq mi)[1]
Discharge
• location	Osijek, Croatia (19.8 km upstream of mouth)
• average	552 m3/s (19,500 cu ft/s)
• minimum	125 m3/s (4,400 cu ft/s)
• maximum	3,000 m3/s (110,000 cu ft/s)
Discharge
• location	Belišće, Croatia (53.8 km upstream of mouth - Basin size: 38500 km2 (14900 sq mi)[1]
• average	544 m3/s (19,200 cu ft/s)[1]
• minimum	160 m3/s (5700 cu ft/s)[1]
• maximum	2232 m3/s (78800 cu ft/s)[1]
Discharge
• location	Barcs, Hungary (154.1 km upstream of mouth - Basin size: 33977 km2 (13119 sq mi)[1]
• average	486 m3/s (17,200 cu ft/s)[1] (Period of data: 1896-2014)595 m3/s (21000 cu ft/s)
• minimum	114 m3/s (4000 cu ft/s)[1] (Period of data: 1896-2014)170 m3/s (6000 cu ft/s)
• maximum	3040 m3/s (107000 cu ft/s)[1] (Period of data: 1896-2014)3070 m3/s (108000 cu ft/s)
Discharge
• location	Ormož, Slovenia (312.8 km upstream of mouth - Basin size: 15379 km2 (5938 sq mi)[1]
• average	292 m3/s (10,300 cu ft/s)[1]
• minimum	28 m3/s (990 cu ft/s)[1]
• maximum	1,994 m3/s (70,400 cu ft/s)[1]
Discharge
• location	Lavamünd, Austria (413.3 km upstream of mouth - Basin size: 11052 km2 (4267 sq mi)[1]
• average	280 m3/s (9,900 cu ft/s)[1]
• minimum	95 m3/s (3,400 cu ft/s)[1]
• maximum	2400 m3/s (85000 cu ft/s)[1]
Basin features
Progression	Danube→ Black Sea

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,^[2] is a river in southern Central Europe.^[3] With a length of 710km,^[1] or 724km, 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.^[1] Its mean annual discharge is seasonally 500m³/s to 670m³/s. 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^[4][5] and Δράβος. Medieval attestations of the name include Dravis (c. AD 670), Drauva (in 799), Drauus (in 811), Trauum (in 1091), and Trah (in 1136). The name is pre-Roman and pre-Celtic, but probably of Indo-European origin, from the root *dreu̯- 'flow'.^[6] The river gives its name to the dravite species of tourmaline.^[7]

Carpis

The Carpis (Greek: Κάρπίς) was a river which, according to Herodotus,^[8] flowed from the upper country of the Ombricans northward into the Ister (Danube), whence it has been supposed that this river is the same as the Dravus.^[9]

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 [de] (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.^[1]

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 Sextner Bach [de],^[10] 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 (average discharge 39 m³/s) is almost three times larger than the Drava (14 m³/s) where they meet and, starting from the source of its tributary Schwarzach [de] under the Rötspitze, the Isel (ca. 64 km) is also longer than the combined Drava and Sextner Bach (ca. 60 km) to that point.^[11][1]

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 142 kilometres (88 mi)^[12] via Vuzenica, Muta, Ruše, and Maribor to Ptuj and the border with Croatia at Ormož. The river then passes Varaždin, Belišće and Osijek in Croatia, and Barcs in Hungary. It is navigable for about 90 kilometres (56 mi) from Čađavica in Croatia to its mouth.

The hydrological parameters of Drava are regularly monitored in Croatia at Botovo, Terezino Polje, Donji Miholjac and Osijek.^[13]

Discharge

The Drava's mean annual discharge (Q) at Drávaszabolcs (Hungary, 77.7 rkm). Period from 1995 to 2022.^[14]

Hydroelectric power plants

Currently, there are 22 hydroelectric power plants on the Drava. The power plants are listed beginning at the headwaters:

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.^[18][19] 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.^[20][21]