There are some 245 river basins worldwide that are shared between one or morecountries. A World Bank paper states that about 40% of the world's population and50% of the land area are either dependent on or stand to benefit from theavailable water in the relevant catchments. The catchment of the River Danube isone of these. There are 13 riparian countries in the catchment and the river isdrained by more than 20 significant tributaries, many of which are themselvestransboundary. The river is also the second largest in Europe, the largest beingthe Volga. The River Danube is therefore probably one of the most internationalof rivers worldwide. The drainage basin of the River Danube includesglacier-covered mountains, mid-mountain chains clad with forests, karstformations devoid of growth, highlands, uplands, table lands, plateaux withdeeply carved river valleys, large floodplain and wetland areas some of which areprotected, wide plains and depressions. Statistics show that the catchment areaextends to some 817,000 sq.km. This paper describes the environmental state ofthe Danube and identifies sources of pollution. International efforts to improvethe quality of the Danube are discussed. Includes 10 references, table, figure.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 320 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 16 |
| Published : | 01/01/2001 |
