I. Geographic Scope

The Danube River comes in contact with 18 countries and supports over 82 million people, making it the most international river basin in the world.  Its 2,875 km length, runs through four capital cities, and has an area of 817 km² beginning in the Black Forest of Germany and emptying into the Black Sea. It has many purposes including providing water for domestic consumption, irrigation, hydro-electric power, and transportation. The International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) is an international organization which was created by the Danube River Protection Convention in 1994. This organization is the largest and most active working to improve the basin which includes the Danube River itself and all of its tributaries. The Danube River Basin can be seen below in Figure 1, which was supplied by the ICPDR’s website. 

Figure 1. Map of the Danube River Basin. Source: http://www.icpdr.org/icpdr-pages/river_basin.htm

The ICPDR breaks the river up into three basins; the upper, middle and lower basin.  The upper basin flows from Germany to Hungary, containing the wealthier countries of the basin and travels at a rate of 8 to 9 km/hr. The middle basin is located from Hungary to the Iron Gates (which is the portion of the river that serves as the border between Romania and Serbia) and flows at half the rate of the upper basin, approximately 4 to 5 km/hr. In the section, the Tisza flows which is the longest tributary in the middle basin. The lower basin runs from the Iron Gates to the Black Sea, the flow rate of the river slows considerably and this area is surrounded by the poor countries of the basin.  

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